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University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 


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JAN2  8 

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JAN  1  8  1955 
JUL  l9  1956 


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STAH  NOSfiiAl  S(mt, 

Los  Angeles  Cal. 


Writings  of  Dr..  Edward  H.  Clarke. 


SEX  IN  EDUCA  TION ;  or,  A  Fair  Chance  for  Girls.    By 
E.  H.  Clarke,  M.  D.     i6mo,  $1.25. 

Dr.  Clarke  has  a  right  to  be  heard,  on  account  of  the  study  he  has 
made  of  tlie  physiolosical  principles  involved  in  the  discussion,  as 
well  as  for  his  extensive  practice  in  cases  of  disorders  arising  from  a 
neglect  of  proper  precautions  during  the  school  years  of  our  young 
people.  I  am  prepared  to  subscribe  to  every  one  of  his  most  com- 
prehensive propositions.  —  L.  Agassiz. 


By  E.  H.  Clarke,  M.  D. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A    BRAIN. 
i6mo,  $1.25. 

No  two  books  have  been  written  this  many  a  year  which  to  our 
way  of  thinking  have  a  more  important  relation  to  the  physical  and 
mental  welfare  of  the  race  than  these,  —  "Sex  in  Education"  and 
"  The  Building  of  a  Brain."  —  The  Independent  (New  York). 


VISIONS.  A  Study  of  False  Sight  (Pseudopia).  By  E.  H. 
Clarke,  M.  D.  With  a  portrait  of  the  author,  and  an  Introduc- 
tion by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  M.  D.     i6mo,  $1.50. 

One  of  the  most  fascinating  volumes  which  for  a  long  time  have 
issued  from  the  American  press.  .  .  .  Especially  will  the  essay 
be  useful  to  those  who  are  called  to  meet  superstitious  fancies,  and  to 
combat  those  nightmares  of  gloom  and  spectral  terror  which  to  so 
many  minds  hang  about  the  region  of  death  and  the  grave. —  The 
Congregationalist  (Boston). 


*«*  For  sale  by  Booksellers.     Sent,  ^ost-paid,  on  receipt  of  price, 
by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  Boston,  Mass. 


THE 


Building  of  a  Brain. 


EDWARD    H.    CLARKE,    M.D., 

AUTHOR   OF    "sex   IN   EDUCATION." 


FOURTH   EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY. 

C60  l\tbrr£ittfg  |3rc^)S,  (lamfirtlfae. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

EDWARD    H.   CLARKE,   M.D., 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


\J 


"  Naturam  expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret, 
Et  mala  pemimpet  furtim  fastklia  VictrLx." 

HORATIUS,  Ep.  I.,  X. 

"  "WTiat  is  the  Light  of  Nature  in  Man,  but  that  Order  which  the 
ipost  Glorious  Fonuer  of  all  things  halh  set  (like  Wheeles  in 
Clocks  or  Watches)  a  going  in  all  his  Creatures? 

"  Some  have  observed  that  in  the  Insensible  Creatures  to  which 
the  most  High  hath  only  given  Bemgs,  that  there  may  be  obser^-ed 
a  Male  and  Female  amongst  them. 

"  This  is  more  observable  in  Vegetables  or  growing  Creatures,  as 
in  Plants,  Trees,  Herbs,  Flowers,  &c. 

"  More  yet  in  Sensitives,  as  Birds,  Beasts,  Fishes. 

"Most  of  all  in  nationals:  Men  and  "Women,  whom  the  most 
High  hath  so  wonderfully  distinguished. 

"It  is  true,  that  in  Religious  and  Christian  INfatters  there  is  no 
respect  of  peisons  with  God,  as  of  Man  before  the  Woman :  other- 
wise than  to  order  Natural  and  Civil. 

"  The  Woman  is  Predestinated,  is  Called,  is  Justified,  is  Glori- 
fied, and  wears  that  Golden  Chain  as  well  as  the  Wisest  and 
Strongest  of  IMankinde."  —  Roger  Williams  :  George  Fox 
DUjifd  out  of  his  Burrovves,  Boston  167G  Appendix  p.  25. 

"  Warum  war  die  Jugeuderziehung  der  Griechen  elne  so  erfolg- 
reiche?  Weil  sic  auf  die  i)hysiseho  Krziehung  dieselbo  Aiif- 
merksamkeit  richtete,  als  auf  die  gcistige."  —  Dk.  HEiiMAiJ 
Ki^xcKE :  Schul-jDidtetik. 

3 


CONTENTS 


PABT  I. 
Natuke's  "Working-Plans ^      13 

PART  n. 
An  Ekkoe  in  Female  Buildino        ....      69 

PAET  m. 
A  Glimpse  at  English  Bkain-Building  .       .       .    145 


PREFACE. 


The  exciting  cause,  to  use  a  medical  phrase,  of  the 
appearance  of  the  present  essay,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  following  coiTespondence :  — 

Peoria,  Illinois,  April  25, 1874. 
Edward  H.  Clarke,  M.D. 

Dear  Sir,  —  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Na- 
tional Educational  Association  invite  you  to  pre- 
pare for  the  next  session  of  the  Association  a  paper 
on  the  subject  of  the  "Education  of  Girls."  This 
invitation  may  be  considered  as  not  coming  from  the 
committee  only,  but  from  several  of  the  educational 
^'^  men  and  women  of  the  country,  who  have  suggested 
that  the  question  would  be  a  profitable  one  for  con- 
•^j    sideratiou  at  that  time. 

The  widespread  comment  which  your  book  has 
created,  and  the  numerous  replies  it  has  elicited,  will 
insure  you  the  best  attention  of  the  Association.  I 
trust  that  you  will  consider  the  invitation  of  the  com- 
mittee favorably,  and  be  able  to  give  an  affirmative 
reply.  I  remain  truly  yours, 

S.  II.  White, 

Chairman  Ex.  Com.  Nat.  Ed.  Asso. 
7 


8  PREFACE. 

BosTOX,  May  5,  1874 

S.  H.  White,  Esq., 

Chairman  Ex.  Com.  Nat.  Ed.  Association. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  favor  of  last  month,  inviting  me, 
in  behalf  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National 
Educational  Association,  to  prepare  a  paper  for  the 
next  session  of  the  Association  on  the  subj  ect  of  the 
"  Education  of  Girls,"  was  received  about  a  week  ago. 
My  reply  has  been  delayed  till  the  present  time  in 
order  to  give  the  matter  my  most  serious  considera- 
tion. 

When  I  published  my  essay  upon  "  Sex  in  Educa- 
tion," it  was  my  intention  not  to  publish  any  thing 
more  upon  that  subject,  but  to  leave  it  for  educators 
to  discuss,  if  they  considered  it  worthy  of  their  dis- 
cussion. Your  invitation  has  obliged  me  to  recon- 
sider that  decision.  Personally  I  should  prefer  to 
remain  silent,  and  let  the  seed  that  has  been  sown 
germinate  and  grow  without  my  interference.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  obligation 
which  rests  upon  every  one  to  render  whatever  service 
he  can,  however  little,  to  any  good  cause  that  is 
brought  to  his  notice.  I  therefore  accept  the  invita- 
tion which  you  have  extended,  and  remain 
Very  truly  yours, 

Edw.  H.  Clarke. 

Shortly  before  leaving  Boston  for  the  meeting  of 
the  Association  at  Detroit,  the  author  was  informed 


PREFACE.  9 

that  half  an  hoitr  -was  the  time  allotted  for  the  deliv- 
ery of  his  address.  In  consequence  of  this  limitation, 
only  a  portion  of  it  was  imposed  upon  the  Association. 
He  has  ventured,  however,  to  oifer  the  whole  paper, 
with  additions,  to  the  public  in  its  present  form. 
The  first  part  contains  the  address  as  originally  pre- 
pared :  the  second  and  third  parts  exhibit  facts  and 
statements,  derived  from  various  sources,  which  are 
not  only  ultimately  connected  with  the  subject  of 
the  address,  but  indicate  and  illustrate  the  error  in 
our  American  system  of  female  education  that  has 
recently  been  so  largely  discussed. 

Should  the  reader  find  the  following  pages  too  long 
for  his  leisure,  or  too  dull  for  his  thought,  he  has  an 
easy  remedy  in  his  own  hands;  and  however  soon 
they  drop  away  from  the  eye,  and  out  of  the  thought 
of  the  public,  the  author  will  still  hope  that  the  dis- 
cussion which  has  been  started,  and  the  investigations 
which  have  been  undertaken,  concerning  the  relation 
of  sex  to  education,  will  continue,  till  Nature's  funda- 
mental distinctions  are  practically  and  permanently 
recognized  in  and  out  of  school.  Then  one  great 
difiiculty  in  the  way  of  solving  the  "woman  ques- 
tion" will  be  removed,  and  more  rapid  progress  in 
human  development  be  made  possible. 

18  Arlington  Stkeet,  Boston. 
September,  1874. 


NATURE'S  WORKING -PLANS. 


THE  BUILD^G  OF  A  BRAIN. 


PART  I. 

NATUEE'S  WOKKENG-PLANS. 

"  The  entire  bodily  system,  tliougli  in  varying  degrees, 
is  in  intunate  alliance  with  mental  functions.  To  confine 
our  study  to  the  nervous  substance  -u-ould  be  to  misrepre- 
Bent  the  connection;  and  the  knowledge  of  that  siib- 
stance,  however  complete,  would  not  suffice  for  the 
solution  of  the  problem."  —  Alexander  Bain,  LL.D.: 
Mind  and  Body,  p.  4. 

No  race  of  human  kind  has  yet  obtained 
a  permanent  foothold  upon  tliis  continent. 
The  Asiatics  trace  back  their  life  in  Asia 
so  far,  that  the  distance  between  to-day  and 
their  recorded  starting-point  seems  like  a 
geologic  epoch.  The  descendants  of  the 
Ptolemys  still  cultivate  the  banks  of  the  Nile. 
The  race  that  peopled  Northern  Europe  when 
Greece  and  Rome  were  young,  not  only  re- 
tains its  ancient  place  and  power,  but  makes 

13 


14  TUE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

itself  felt  and  heard  throughout  the  world. 
On  this  continent,  races  have  been  born  and 
lived  and  disappeared.  Mounds  at  the 
West,  vestiges  in  Florida,  and  traces  else- 
where, proclaim  at  least  two  extinct  races. 
The  causes  of  their  disappearance  are  undis- 
covered. We  only  know  that  they  are  gone. 
The  Indian,  whom  our  ancestors  confronted, 
was  losing  his  hold  on  the  continent  when 
"The  Mayflower"  anchored  in  Plymouth 
Bay,  and  is  now  also  rapidly  disappearing. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  if  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  which  has  ventured  upon  a  continent 
that  has  proved  the  tomb  of  antecedent 
races,  can  be  more  fortunate  than  they  in 
maintaining  a  permanent  grasp  upon  this 
Western  world.  One  thing,  at  least,  is 
sure,  —  it  will  fail,  as  previous  races  have 
failed,  unless  it  can  produce  a  physique  and 
a  brain  capable  of  meeting  successfully  the 
demands  that  our  climate  and  civilization 
make  upon  it.  But  the  Anglo-Saxon  will 
not  be  satisfied,  and  ought  not  to  be,  with 
simply  securing  a  permanent  foothold  here. 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  15 

He  will  not  rest  content  with  mere  acclima- 
tion and  existence.  The  sponge  and  the 
oyster  can  exist,  and  perpetuate  theh  kind. 
He  must  do  more  than  they:  he  must  as- 
cend in  the  scale  of  being,  as  well  as  exist. 

Two  duties,  then,  are  imposed  upon  our 
civilization.  Two  problems  are  presented 
to  our  educators.  The  duties  are,  first,  to 
secure  the  perpetuation  of  the  race  in  Amer- 
ica; and,  secondly,  to  provide  also  for  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  here.  The  prob- 
lems are,  first,  to  develop  the  individual  to 
the  highest  degree  ;  and,  secondly,  to  obtain 
this  development  without  interfering  with 
the  perpetuation  of  the  best.  In  other 
words,  humanity  demands,  and  our  educa- 
tion must  give,  both  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  the  individual,  and  the  perpetuation 
of  individuals  thus  developed,  or,  as  it  is 
commonly  expressed,  the  perpetuation  of 
the  fittest.  It  has  been  argued,  with  much 
apparent  force,  that  these  two  results  are 
impossible,  because  the  highest  cerebral  de- 
velopment, being  made   at  the  expense  of 


16  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

the  rest  of  the  organization,  sterilizes  the 
individuals  whose  brains  attain  such  sup- 
posed magnificent  proportion  and  quality. 
This  is  not  the  place,  nor  does  it  fall  within 
the  scope  of  this  paper,  to  point  out  the  fal- 
lacy of  such  a  statement.  It  is  referred  to 
only  for  the  purpose  of  calling  attention  to 
a  physiological  error  that  has  already  been 
grafted  into  our  system  of  education,  and 
which  exerts  its  most  pernicious  influence 
in  our  common  and  high  schools;  viz.,  the 
error  of  exclusively  developing  one  part  of 
the  organization  at  the  expense  of  and  by 
ignoring  the  rest.  Every  physiologist  knows 
that  one-sided  development  is  possible,  and 
may  be  artificially  attained.  The  athlete 
may  develop  his  muscle,  the  glutton  his 
stomach,  and  the  sensuahst  his  power,  at  the 
expense  of  the  brain;  and,  conversely,  the 
brain  may  be  developed  at  the  expense  of 
muscle,  stomach,  and  reproductive  force; 
and  this  inharmonious  growth  may  be  carried 
so  far,  by  dwarfing  more  or  less  of  the  or- 
ganization, as  to  produce  what  physiology 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  17 

calls  monstrous  brains,  stomachs,  muscles, 
and  the  like,  —  that  is,  monstrosities,  which, 
by  a  beneficent  law  of  Nature,  cannot  per- 
petuate themselves.* 

How  much   the    literature,   politics,   and 
morals  of  the  world  may  have  suffered  from 
the   abnormal  intro-cranial  development  of 
some,  who,  hke  Byron,  Napoleon,  and  Loy 
ola,  have  compelled  the  world's   attention, 


*  "Kot  only  are  the  energies  of  the  Esquimaux  ex- 
pended mainly  in  defending  himself  against  loss  of  heat, 
and  in  laying  up  stores  by  which  he  may  continue  to  do 
this  diu-ing  the  arctic  night,  but  his  physiological  processes 
are  gi-eatly  modified  to  the  same  end.  Without  fuel,  and, 
Indeed,  unable  to  bum  within  his  snow  hut  any  thing 
more  than  an  oil-lamp,  lest  the  walls  should  melt,  he  has 
to  keep  up  that  bodily  warmth  which  even  his  thick  fur 
dress  fails  to  retain,  by  devoiiring  vast  quantities  of  blub- 
ber and  oil;  and  his  digestive  system,  heavily  taxed  in 
pro^'iding  the  wherewith  to  meet  excessive  loss  by  radia- 
tion, supplies  less  material  for  other  vital  purposes.  Tliis 
great  physiological  cost  of  individual  life,  indirectly  check- 
ing the  multiplication  of  individuals,  arrests  social  evolu- 
tion" (Hkreert  Spencer:  Climate  and  Social  Development, 
in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  July,  1874,  p.  322.)  The 
distinguished  author  illustrates  the  same  law  by  the  de 
velopment  of  the  Fuegians. 
2 


18  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

we  may  guess,  but  can  never  know.  Shak- 
speare's  brain  probably  crowned  a  nervous 
system  and  a  body  that  presented  very  little 
inharmonious  growth.  Doubtless  the  same 
may  be  said  of  Mary  Somerville. 

Brains  rule  the  world  and  the  individual. 
The  problem  of  the  age  which  educators  are 
to  solve,  with  all  the  light  that  experience, 
aided  by  physiology  and  reflection,  can  give, 
is,  how  to  build  the  best  brains  out  of  the 
materials  given  to  work  with.  The  demand 
of  humanity  is,  Give  me  the  best  possible 
brain  for  men  and  women  both.  For- 
tunately, the  necessity  of  answering  this 
demand  admits  of  no  dis^Dute.  The  best  pos- 
sible brain  is  as  much  a  necessity  for  one  sex 
as  for  the  other.  Indeed,  such  is  the  divine 
aUiance  between  the  sexes,  that  it  is  impossi-  ^^ 
ble  to  produce  the  best  possible  brain  for 
one  sex,  unless  you  produce  the  best  possible 
brain  for  the  other  also.  This  constitution 
of  human  nature  —  the  interdependence  of 
the  sexes,  by  which  the  advance  of  one  is 
contingent  upon  the  advance  of  the^other. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BHAIN  19 

the  best  development  of  tlie  masculine  and 
feminine  brain  made  to  wait  on  eacb  other, 
which  together  can  unlock  the  secrets  of  the 
universe  —  is  admirably  expressed  by  Emer- 
son, in  language  that  is  as  full  of  physiologi- 
cal truth  as  of  poetic  beauty :  — 

"From  the  twins  is  nothing  hidden; 
To  the  pair  is  naught  forbidden; 
Hand  in  hand  the  comrades  go 
Every  nook  of  Nature  through; 
Each  for  other  they  were  born, 
Each  can  other  best  adorn." 

Unless  men  and  women  both  have  normally- 
developed  brains,  the  nation  will  go  down. 
As  good  a  brain  is  needed  to  govern  a  house- 
hold as  to  command  a  ship ;  to  guide  a 
family  aright  as  to  guide  a  Congress  aright ; 
to  do  the  least  and  the  greatest  of  woman's 
work  as  to  do  the  least  and  the  greatest 
of  man's  work.  Moreover,  in  both  sexes, 
the  brain  is  the  conservator  of  strength 
and  prolonger  of  hfe.  It  is  not  only  the 
organ  of  intellection,  vohtion,  and  spiritual 
power ;  but  the  force  evolved  from  it,  more 


20  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN, 

than  the  force  evolved  from  any  other  organ, 
enables  men  and  women  to  bear  the  burdens, 
and  perform  the  duties,  of  life  ;  and  with  its 
aid,  better  than  with  any  surgery,  can  they 
overcome  the  "ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to." 

But  the  organs  whose  normal  growth  and 
evolution  lead  up  to  the  brain  are  not  the 
same  in  men  and  women:  consequently 
their  brains,  though  alike  in  microscopic 
structure,  have  infused  into  them  different, 
though  equally  excellent  qualities.  If  it 
were  not  so,  Emerson's  lines  would  _  be 
absm'd,  sex  would  be  a  myth,  men  and 
women  would  be  identical ;  and  it  would  be 
foUy  to  discuss  the  relation  of  sex  to  edu- 
cation. 

Poor  brains,  automatic  ganglia,  will  grow, 
like  weeds,  without  cultivation,  on  any  soil. 
The  best  brains,  the  only  sort  the  world 
needs,  are  built  by  education,  or  educated 
evolution,  in  accordance  with  working-plans 
that  Nature  furnishes.  Let  us  endeavor, 
then,  to  get  some  notion,  however  crude,  of 
the  way  in  which  the  divine  Architect,  whom 


Los  Angeles,  Cai. 
TEE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  21 

we  know  as  Nature's  God,  builds  a  human 
brain.  By  so  doing  we  shall  clear  the  way 
to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  true  rela- 
tion of  sex  to  education. 

The  building  of  a  brain:  this  is  to-day's 
social  problem;  and  teachers  are  largely 
charged  with  its  solution.  When  tliis  is 
solved,  all  other  problems  will  be  easily  dis- 
posed of;  for  a  human  brain  is  the  last,  the 
highest,  "  the  consummate  flower "  of  Na- 
ture's development  on  this  planet.  It  can- 
not be  made,  except  as  the  crown  of  the 
rest  of  the  body,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  out 
of  the  rest  of  the  body.  No  perfect  brain 
ever  crowns  an  imperfectly  developed  body. 
When  Michael  Angclo  reared  St.  Peter's  dome 
in  the  air,  he  made  every  stone  beneath  con- 
tribute not  only  to  the  use  and  beauty  of  the 
part  he  put  it  in,  but  to  the  support  and 
power  of  the  dome.  The  brain  must  be 
built  up  in  connection  with  the  building  of 
the  rest  of  the  body,  remembering  constantly 
that  the  imperfections  of  the  latter  reflect 
themselves  upon  the  former. 


22  THE  BUILDING    OF  A   BRAIN. 

In  one  sense,  the  process  of  brain-building 
is  alike  for  the  two  sexes  ;  in  another  sense, 
it  is  different.  It  is  the  same  for  both,  inas- 
much as  the  process  which  evolves  the  best 
possible  brain,  by  means  of  appropriate  brain- 
exercise,  including  cerebration,  out  of  the 
underlying  organization,  is  alike  in  the  two 
sexes. 

It  is  different  for  the  two,  in  so  far  as  there 
are  any  organs,  or  Fets  of  organs,  in  the  struc- 
ture of  one  sex  that  are  not  in  the  structure 
of  the  other.  Provided  the  organization  of 
both  sexes  is  normal,  and  all  their  functions 
normally  performed,  the  same  sort  of  brain- 
work  will  develop  the  brain  of  each.  But 
if  the  methods  of  education  render  abnor- 
mal an}'-  part  of  the  body,  or  interfere  with 
any  function,  there  will  not  only  be  damage 
to  the  part  disturbed,  and  friction  in  its 
function,  but  the  brain  will  suffer  just  in  pro- 
portion to  the  importance  of  the  organs  dis- 
turbed, and  the  amount  of  the  disturbance. 

It  will  avoid  confusion,  and,  perhaps,  pre- 
vent   misconception,   if,   before    proceeding 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  23 

farther  in  this  discussion,  the  meaning  is 
clearly  defined  in  which  some  of  the  terms 
employed  in  it  are  used. 

First,  brain  is  used  as  the  correlative  of 
mind,  not  from  a  materialistic  point  of  view, 
as  if  mind  (including  volition)  and  brain  were 
identical,  but  because  we  know,  and  only 
can  know,  the  mind  through  the  brain.  The 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  latter  determine 
for  us  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  former. 
The  development  of  the  soul  and  mind  — 
of  the  ego  —  resolves  itself  into  the  devel- 
opment of  the  brain.  The  artist  who  builds 
a  fountain  looks  carefully  after  the  strength 
and  structure,  the  quality  and  form,  of  what 
he  builds,  and  troubles  himself  very  little 
about  the  water  which  is  to  animate  his 
work.  He  knows  that  jet  and  drop  and 
spray  will  pour  out  just  as  the  fountain  per- 
mits the  flow.  So  with  the  brain.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  character  of  its  structure  will 
be  the  manifestation  of  mind  and  spirit 
through  it.  Build  the  brain  aright,  and  the^ 
Divine  Spirit  will  inhabit  and  use  it.     Build  ( 


24  TEE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

Lit  wrongly,  and  the  Devil  will  employ  it. 
The  development  of  tlie  mind,  then,  means 
practically  the  development  of  the  brain ;  * 
and  the  building  of  a  brain  is  a  part  of 
education. 

*  "  Wliatever  may  be  our  opinions  as  to  the  relations 
between  '  mind '  and  '  matter,'  our  observation  only  ex- 
tends to  tliouglit  and  emotion  as  connected  with  the  living 
body,  and,  according  to  the  general  verdict  of  conscious- 
ness, more  especially  -with  certain  parts  of  the  body; 
namely,  the  central  organs  of  the  nervous  system.  The 
bold  language  of  certain  speculative  men  of  science  has 
frightened  some  more  cautious  persons  away  from  a  sub- 
ject as  much  belonging  to  natural  history  as  the  study  of 
any  other  function  in  connection  with  its  special  organ, 
[f  ]VIr.  Huxley  maintaius  that  his  thoughts  and  ours  are 
'the  expression  of  molecular  changes  in  that  matter  of 
life  which  is  the  source  of  our  other  vital  phenomena ; '  if 
the  Eev.  Prof.  Houghton  suggests,  though  in  the  most 
guarded  way,  that  '  our  successors  may  even  dare  to 
speculate  on  the  changes  that  converted  a  crust  of  bread, 
or  a  bottle  of  wine,  in  the  brain  of  Swift,  Moliere,  or 
Shakspeare,  into  the  conception  of  the  gentle  Glumdal- 
clitch,  the  rascally  Sganarelle,  or  the  immortal  Falstaff,'  — 
all  this  need  not  frighten  us  from  studying  the  conditions 
of  the  thinking  organ  in  connection  with  thought,  just  as 
we  study  the  eye  in  its  relations  to  sight.  The  brain  is  an 
instrument  necessary,  so  far  as  our  direct  observation 
extends,  to  thought.    The  'materialist'  believes  it  to  be 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  25 

Secondly,  brain  is  liere  made  to  include 
the  cerebro-spinal  axis.  The  spinal  cord, 
medulla  oblongata,  and  cerebellum  are  so 
intimately  connected  with  the  brain  in  func- 
tion and  structure,  that  it  is  difl&cult  to  draw 
an  exact  line  of  demarcation  between  them : 
for  our  present  purpose,  it  is  better  not  to 
undertake  to  do  so,  but  to  consider  the  brain 
as  standing  for  this  whole  group  of  organs. 
There  are  physiologists  who  would  make  the 
brain  include  all  the  ganglia  of  the  nervous 
system  and  their  inter-nuncial  fibres.* 


wound  up  by  the  ordinary  cosmic  forces,  and  to  give  them 
out  again  as  mental  products ;  the  '  spiritualist '  believes  in 
a  conscious  entity,  not  interchangeable  with  motive  force, 
•which  plays  upon  this  instrument.  But  the  instrument 
must  be  suidied  by  the  one  as  much  as  by  the  other :  tne 
piano  which  the  master  touches  must  be  as  thoroughly 
understood  as  the  musical  box  or  clock  which  goes  oi 
itself  by  a  spring  or  weight."  —  Olivek  "Wendell  Holmes  : 
MecJianism  in  ThoiKjht  and  Morals,  pp.  7-9. 

*  "  In  that  action  and  re-action,  however,  between  the 
mind  and  all  that  is  outside  of  it,  in  which  the  conscioixs 
life  of  every  human  ego  consists,  the  whole  cerebro-spinal 
system  participates."  — William  B.  CARrENTEB:  Princi- 
ples of  Mental  Physiology,  p.  123,  Am.  ed. 


26  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

Thirdly,  let  us  come  to  an  agreement  as  to 
the  meanmg  of  education.  Education  and 
study  are  apt  to  be  confounded  as  synony- 
mous ;  whereas  study,  or  literary  culture,  is 
only  one  part  of  education.  An  educated 
person  is  something  more,  and  much  more, 
than  a  college  graduate.  In  this  essay  let  us 
remember  that  education  is  used  not  in  the 
narrow  sense  of  book-learning,  or  of  school- 
training,  but  in  its  proper  philosophical  and 
jjhysiological  signification,  —  of  all  that  train- 
ing, alike  of  the  brain  and  of  the  body,  which 
yields  the  just  and  harmonious  development 
of  every  organ.*     When   such   harmonious 


♦  "  Education  is  an  affair  of  the  laws  of  our  being,  in- 
volving a  wide  range  of  considerations,  —  an  affair  of  the 
air  respired,  its  moisture,  temperature,  density,  piu-ity, 
and  electrical  state  in  their  physiological  effects  ;  an  affair 
of  food,  digestion,  and  nutrition  ;  of  the  quantity,  quality, 
and  speed  of  the  blood  sent  to  the  brain  ;  of  clothing  and 
exercise,  fatigue  and  repose,  health  and  disease,  or  varia- 
ble volition  and  automatic  nerve-action  ;  of  fluctuating 
feeling,  redundancy  and  exhaustion  of  nerve-power, 
sensuous  impressibility,  temperament,  family  history,  con- 
stitutional predisposition,  and  unconscious  influence  ;  of 


TEE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  27 

development  is  attained,  the  cerebral  ganglia 
in  both  sexes  become  the  controlling  power 
of  the  organization;  education  then  has 
done  its  perfect  work ;  and  mind  pours  out  its 
noblest  manifestations. 

One  of  the  indispensable  objects  of  educa- 
tion is  to  build  a  brain,  and  to  build  one  of 
the  right  sort.  In  this  architecture,  schools 
and  colleges  play  an  important  part.  Their 
methods  may  aid  or  obstruct  Nature's  pro- 
cess of  building.  Many  of  them  have  ob- 
structed and  almost  thwarted  Nature's  way 
of  work.  Especially  is  this  true  with  regard 
to  American  female  education,  which  has 
looked  upon  a  girl  as  if  she  were  a  boy, 
treated  her  as  if  she  were  a  boy,  and  trained 
her  as  if  she  were  to  have  a  boy's  destiny. 
In  the  "  higher  education  "  of  woman,  which 
the  futiu'C  has  in  store  for  her,  this  error  of 


material  surroundings,  and  a  host  of  agencies  which 
stamp  themselves  upon  the  plastic  organism,  and  re- 
appear in  character." —  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Novem- 
ber, 1873,  p.  112.  I 


28  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

ignoring  her  peculiar  organization  must  be 
avoided."  How  to  avoid  it,  "woman  must 
largely  determine  for  herself.  "  Now  when 
there  is  so  much  agitation  to  give  woman 
larger  mental  opportunities,  and  she  is  press- 
ing for  the  advantages  of  a  higher  education, 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  that  she  will  con- 
sider the  subject  from  her  own  point  of  view, 
and  supply  the  great  educational  need  that 
has  been  so  long  recognized  and  deplored. 
The  new  departure  of  higher  female  educa- 
tion should  unquestionably  be  from  the  re- 
sults of  the  medical  profession.  We  believe 
that  physicians  have  by  no  means  yet  taken 
the  share  in  general  education  that  the  inter- 
ests of  society  require ;  but  when  the  mental 
cultivation  of  women  is  to  become  systematic, 
and  they  have  their  own  higher  institutions, 
the  agency  of  physicians  will  be  indispensa- 
ble." A  necessary  and  preparatory  con- 
dition for  the  building  of  the  best  possible 
brain  out  of  the  female  organization  is  to 
diffuse  through  the  community  a  knowledge 
of  the  physiology  of  woman.      For  this,  as 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  29 

well  as  for  other  purposes,  there  should  be  a 
class  of  inteUigent  and  well-educated  female 
physicians,  who,  instructed  in  the  peculiari- 
ties and  physiological  needs  of  the  female 
constitution,  would  have  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  spreading  among  their  own  sex 
sound  and  rational  views  of  female  develop- 
ment. 

A  wise  and  appropriate  system  of  educa- 
tion, in  its  effort  to  build  a  brain  either  for 
the  male  or  the  female  organization,  will 
endeavor  to  aid  and  imitate  the  process  by 
which  Nature  performs  the  same  task.  Here- 
in physiology  can  render  infinite  service  to 
education,  —  a  service  that  the  latter  cannot 
afford  to  refuse. 

It  is  impossible,  within  the  limits  of  this 
paper,  to  give  even  an  outline  of  the  won- 
derful process  by  which  that  delicate  and 
marvellous  engine,  the  human  brain,  is  built 
up,  —  an  engine  which  is  only  a  few  inches 
in  diameter,  whose  weight,  on  an  average, 
is  only  about  forty-nine  ounces,  which  con- 
tains cells  and  fibres  counted  by  hundreds 


30  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

of  millions;  cells  and  fibres  that  vary  in 
thickness  from  one-millionth  (i,-oo o",oot)  ^^ 
one-three-hundredth  (3^0^)  of  an  inch,  —  an 
engine,  every  square  inch  of  whose  gray 
matter  affords  substrata  for  the  evolution 
of  at  least  eight  thousand  registered  and 
separate  ideas ;  substrata  in  the  whole  brain 
for  evolving  and  registering  tens  of  millions 
of  them,  besides  the  power  of  recalling 
them  under  appropriate  stimulus,  —  an  en- 
gine, parts  of  which  are  sensitive  to  innu- 
merable vibrations  in  a  second,*  —  an  engine 
that  transmits  sensation,  emotion,  thought, 
and  volition,  by  distinct  fibres,  whose  time- 
working  has  been  ingeniously  measured  to 
fractions  of  a  second,  —  an  engine,  a  mech- 
anism, that  can  accomplish  this,  and  greater 
wonders  still,  without  conscious  friction,  pain, 
or  disturbance,  if  it  is  only  properly  built, 

*  "We  believe  the  statements  that  the  sensation  of 
violet  is  produced  by  the  striking  of  the  ethereal  waves 
against  the  retina  more  than  seven  hundred  billions  of 
times  in  a  second,"  &c.  —  George  Henry  Lewes  :  Prob- 
lems of  Life  and  Mind,  p.  21. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  31 

and  its  -working  not  interfered  witli.*  Not 
even  an  outline  can  be  given  here  of  the 
curious  process  by  which  Nature  builds  this 
mechanism  of  inconceivable  delicacy  and 
power.  Only  a  few  salient  points  can  be 
dwelt  upon,  that  may  serve  as  hints  for  the 
educator's  guidance ;  and  these  can  be  pre- 
sented only  in  the  most  general  way. 

I  once  asked  a  successful  merchant  and 
manufacturer,  who  had  accumulated  a  large 
fortune,  how  he  managed  to  make  money 
at  a  time  when  all  others  who  were  engaged 
in  the  same  business  were  losing  it.  He 
replied,  that  he  had  practically  learned  every 
detail  and  branch  of  his  business  so  thor- 
oughly, that  he  ^uld  at  any  time,  if  neces- 
sary, take  the  place,  and  perform  the  special 
work,  of  any  of  his  workmen.     In  one  and 


•  The  reader  who  desires  to  consiilt  authorities  for 
these  statements  is  referred  to  Mind  and  Body,  by  Alex- 
ander Bain  ;  Helmholz  ;  O.  W.  Holmes,  Op.  Cit. ;  Mind 
and  Brain,  by  T.  Laycock,  M.D.;  Mental  Physiology, 
Dy  W.  B.  Oerpenter,  M.D.;  Body  and  Mind,  by  Henry 
Maudsley,  M.D. 


32  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

a  most  important  sense,  lie  was  made  by  and 
out  of  liis  business.  His  efforts  to  practically 
learn  every  detail  had  developed  Mm.  Sup- 
pose bis  business  branched  into  one  hundred 
different  directions,  terminating  in  one  hun- 
dred different  sorts  of  labor,  each  sort  of 
labor  affording  occupation  for  one  or  more 
workmen.  In  becoming  acquainted  with 
each  of  these  hundred  details,  and  in  super- 
vising the  workmen  that  wrought  them  out, 
he  acquired  a  knowledge  which  no  other 
experience  or  education  could  give  him.  So 
far  he  was  made  out  of  his  business,  devel- 
oped by  it.  If,  in  his  preparatory  training, 
he  had  learned  only  ninety,  or  eighty,  or  fifty 
of  the  branches  of  his  business,  he  would 
have  been,  pro  tanto,  less  developed.  His 
business  consisted  of  three  great  departments, 
—  manufacturing,  exporting,  and  importing. 
The  management  of  these  reflected  itself 
back  upon  his  development  and  character. 
If  he  had  neglected,  or  not  acquainted  him- 
self with,  one  of  these  departments,  —  export- 
ing, for  example,  —  he  would  have  been  so 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  33 

mucli  the  less  developed :  lie  would  have 
lost  the  special  knowledge  and  training  that 
an  acquaintance  with  the  exporting  part  of 
his  business  would  have  given  him.  This 
loss  would,  of  course,  be  proportionately 
greater  than  that  resulting  from  inattention 
to  a  single  one  of  the  hundred  details 
which  entered  into  the  great  whole  of  his 
business. 

Observe,  that  here  are  two  distinct  things 
which  are  not  to  be  confounded.  One  is  the 
growth  or  development  of  the  man  by  reason 
of  the  special  effort,  training,  and  knowledge, 
which  came  from  learning  every  detail  of  his 
business,  as  well  as  from  managing  the  whole ; 
and  the  other  is  the  character  and  amount 
of  mental  force  thus  developed.  One  is  the 
process  of  development:  the  other  is  the 
result  attained.  One  is  the  re-acting  of  the 
business  on  the  man :  the  other  is  the  mer- 
chant developed  by  the  re-action.  If  while 
my  mercantile  friend  was  learning  his  busi- 
ness, getting  this  part  of  his  education,  he 
had   omitted  to  become   acquainted  with  a 


34  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

single  detail,  he  would  have  developed  just 
so  much  less  mercantile  power:  he  would 
have  become  just  so  much  less  of  a  merchant 
or  manufacturer.  When  the  power  was 
acquired,  he  could  exert  or  spend  it  in  any 
direction  he  chose.  First,  there  was  growth, 
the  force  for  which  was  supplied  from  a 
hundred  sources ;  and,  secondly,  there  was 
a  power  which  was  grown. 

One  other  observation  is  important  in  this 
connection.  We  have  supposed  that  a  hun- 
dred details  composed  the  body  of  this  man's 
business.  If  some  or  all  of  the  details  had 
been  different,  his  kind  of  growth  would 
have  been  different,  though  it  might  have  re- 
sulted in  giving  him  equal  power.  An  omis- 
sion of  one  or  more  of  the  details,  or  a  change 
of  one  or  more  of  the  details,  would  have 
yielded  a  different  result.  There  is  a  different 
quality  in  the  brain,  grown  by  different  call- 
ings, —  as  banking,  manufacturing,  and  agri- 
culture,—  and  a  separate  flavor  to  the  resulting 
character. 

This  illustration  presents  in  a  rough  way 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  35 

some  notion  of  Nature's  method  of  brains 
building.  The  brain  is  the  axis,  or  central 
organ,  of  the  body,  which,  by  internuncial 
fibres,  —  telegraphic  "wires,  —  is  connected 
with  innumerable  small  centres  called  ganglia, 
and  with  every  part  of  the  system.  The 
ganglia,  or  separate  centres  of  nervous  power, 
act  more  or  less  automatically,  but  are 
responsible  to,  and  in  constant  communica- 
tion with,  the  brain.  Calling  our  mercantile 
friend  the  brain,  his  workmen  the  ganglia, 
his  business  the  labor  of  the  human  organi- 
zation, and  we  shall  get  a  notion  of  Nature's 
way  of  educating,  —  that  is,  building  a  brain, 
—  sufficiently  accurate  for  our  present  pur- 
pose. Just  as  the  merchant  grew  out  of  his 
business  by  becoming  acquainted  with  and 
supervising  every  detail  of  it,  so  the  brain 
grows  by  taking  part  in  and  supervising  the 
growth  and  function  of  every  organ.  If  a 
single  organ  is  wanting,  or  a  single  function 
not  performed,  just  so  much  less  brain  devel 
opment  results. 


36  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

"Pluck  one  thread,  and  the  -web  ye  mar; 
Break  but  one 
Of  a  thousand  keys,  and  the  paming  jar 
Thi'ough  all  will  run."  * 

Just  as  the  mercliant,  by  his  practical  ac- 
quaintance with  every  detail  of  his  business, 
was  able  to  manage  his  workmen  better,  and 
obtain  a  better  total  result,  than  his  com- 
petitors, and  was  also  himself  a  more  fully 
developed  man  in  consequence ;  so  the 
brain,  which  has  a  practical  acquaintance 
with  the  working  of  every  ganglion  and 
function,  gets  a  better  total  result  out  of 
the  body  than  other  brains  do,  and  is  also 
itself  a  better  brain.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
merchant,  we  recognized  his  business-growth 
as  one  fact,  and  the  result  attained  as  another 
and  distinct  fact ;  so,  in  the  case  of  the  brain, 
there  are  two  distinct  matters :  one  is  the 
development  of  the  brain  by  reason  of  its 
special  connection  with  all  the  organs  and 
functions  of  the  body ;  and  the  other  is  the 
brain  thus  developed  :  one  is  the  progressive 


*  Whittier:  My  Soul  and  I. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  37 

development;  and  the  other  is  the  result. 
As  the  merchant,  after  he  was  made  one  by 
his  business-training,  could  direct  his  ener- 
gies in  any  direction  ;  so  the  brain,  after  it  is 
developed,  can  have  its  force  turned  in  what- 
ever direction  volition  may  elect.  Once 
more  ;  our  mercantile  friend  had  learned  his 
busmess  so  well,  that  he  could,  when  neces- 
sary, replace  any  of  his  workmen,  and  perform 
any  workman's  labor.  Physiologists  tell  us, 
that  the  connection  between  the  brain  and 
the  rest  of  the  nervous  system  —  such  as  the 
sympathetic  ganglia,  for  instance — is  so  in- 
timate, that,  if  surgeons  could  make  the 
anatomical  transposition,  the  brain  would  take 
the  place,  and  perform  the  labor,  of  other 
parts  ;  and,  conversely,  other  parts  that  of 
the  brain.* 

*  "  The  physiological  fact  first  enunciated  by  me,  anJ 
now  adopted  by  some  teacliers  of  gi"eat  eminence  (Vul- 
pian,  Gavarret,  &c.),  that  nervous  tissue  is  identical  through- 
out in  property  as  in  structure,  lias  extremely  important 
consequences.  For,  if  the  property  be  everywhere  the 
same,  all  the  functions  into  wMch  that  property  enters 
must  have  a  common  identity."  —  Geokge  Hejtby 
Lewes  :  Op.  Cit.,  p.  124. 


38  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

An  apposite  physiological  illustration  of 
Nature's  process  of  building  a  brain,  which 
we  are  trying  to  expose,  may  be  found  in  the 
relation  of  the  left  brain  to  the  right  arm  and 
right  side  of  the  body.  A  large  majority  of 
the  world  are  right-handed  and  right-sided. 
The  right  hand  and  right  arm  are  stronger, 
and  more  obedient  to  the  will,  than  the  left : 
so  are  the  right  leg  and  right  foot.  The 
cause  of  this  right-sidedness  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  left  brain  is  the  largest. 
Most  of  the  nerves  leaving  the  brain  decus- 
sate, and  cross  to  opposite  sides  of  the  body. 
The  right  brain  animates  and  controls  the 
left  arm  and  hand:  the  left  brain  animates 
and  controls  the  right  arm  and  hand.  The 
left  brain  and  right  hand,  the  right  brain  and 
left  hand,  develop  together.  One  aids  the 
development  of  the  other.  The  growth  and 
action  of  the  hand  are  as  necessary  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  brain  as  the  guidance  and 
control  of  the  brain  are  to  the  development  of 
the  hand.  In  congenital  ambidexters,  it  is 
said  there  is  less  difference  between  the  two 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  39 

halves  of  the  brain  than  in  right-handed  peo- 
ple, and  that  in  left-handed  persons  the  dif- 
ference is  less  stiU.  Which  started  first  in 
the  race  of  development  is  unknown ;  and  we 
need  not  inquire.*  It  is  enough  for  our  pur- 
pose to  know,  that,  in  some  way,  the  growth, 
training,  and  employment  of  the  hands  of  the 
young,  aid  in  the  building  of  a  brain.f  Cut 
off  an  arm  in  infancy,  or  compel  it  to  in- 
action, and  there  will  be  less  brain  in  adult 
life.  An  eminent  Hving  physiologist^  has 
lately  proposed  the  systematic  training  of 
the  left  hand  in  children,  for  the  purpose 
of  making  the  right  side  of  the  brain 
equal  the  left,  and  thus  increasing  the  intel- 
lectual power  of  the  race.  What  is  true  of 
the  hand  is  true  of  all  other  organs  of  the 
body.     They  and  the  brain  are  developed  by 


*  Hyatt  thinks  the  larger  current  of  blood  to  the  right 
arm  is  the  cause.  Others,  like  Gratiolet,  think  the  left 
frontal  convolutions  started  first, 

t  "According  to  my  thinking,  it  is  the  soul  that  niakea 
organization,  not  organization,  the  soul."  — F.  H.  Hedge. 

X  Prof.  0.  E.  Brown-S^quard,  M.D. 


40  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN, 

reciprocal  action.  An  unused  organ  calls 
out  less  activity  on  the  part  of  the  brain 
tlian  a  used  one.  A  misused  organ  may  not 
only  call  out  unhealthy  activity  of  the  brain, 
but  often  leads  to  pathological  conditions  of 
it.  It  is  necessary  for  the  building  of  a  per- 
fect brain,  that  all  the  organs  of  the  body 
should  have  their  harmonious  development 
and  appropriate  exercise. 

The  eye  and  the  ear,  the  hand  and  the  foot, 
must  be  exercised  and  taught  in  our  schools 
by  appropriate  labor,  and  books  no  longer  re- 
garded as  the  only  factor,  if  we  would  have 
fully-developed  brains.  "  A  small  difference 
in  the  pigment  of  a  sense,"  says  Mr.  Bain,  "  by 
giving  that  sense  greater  susceptibility,  may 
determine  the  animal's  preferences,  tastes, 
and  pursuits ;  in  other  words,  its  whole  des- 
tiny. In  a  human  being,  the  circurqstance 
of  being  acutely  sensitive  in  one  or  two  lead- 
ing senses  may  rule  the  entire  charrxter, 
intellectual  and  moral.  The  contrast  be- 
tween a  sensuous  and  a  reflective  nature 
mieht  take  its  rise  in  the  outworks  of  the 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  41 

sense  organs,  apart  even  from  the  endow- 
ments of  the  brain.  In  this  case,  the  ner- 
vous system  would  follow  the  cue,  instead 
of  taking  the  lead,  of  the  special  senses."* 
The  organic  functions,  such  as  nutrition  and 
reproduction,  affect  the  nervous  system  in  a 
way  not  less  potent,  and  scarcely  less  per- 
ceptible, than  the  sx)ecial  senses. 

Recent  investigations  indicate,  if  they  do 
not  demonstrate,  the  parts  of  the  brain  that 
preside  over  special  muscular  movements, 
and  that,  consequently,  are  more  or  less  de- 
veloped by  such  movements.! 

It  is  now  important  to  go  one  step  farther. 

*  Alexander  Baln  :  Mind  and  Body,  p.  So,  Am.  ed. 

t  *'  Generally  it  may  be  stated,  that  the  centres  for  the 
movements  of  the  limbs  are  situated  in  the  convolutions 
bounding  the  fissure  of  Eolando:  viz.,  the  ascending 
parietal  convolution  with  its  postero-parietal  termination 
as  far  back  as  the  parieto-occipital  Assure,  the  ascending 
frontal,  and  posterior  termination,  of  the  superior  frontal 
convolution.  Centres  for  individual  movements  of  the 
limbs,  hands,  and  feet,  are  differentiated  in  these  convolu- 
tions."—  Dr.  Ferrier  :  London  Medical  Record,  Mai'ch 
18,  1874,  and  American  Journal  Medical  Science,  July,  1874, 
p.  27. 


42  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

We  have  hitherto  dwelt  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  the  brain  as  a  resultant  of  its  con- 
nection with  the  organs  of  the  body,  and 
supervision  of  their  functions ;  of  its  alli- 
ance with  the  workmen,  and  supervision  of 
their  duties.  No  allusion  has  been  made  to 
the  development  produced  by  specific  brain- 
work,  or  cerebration,  as  a  factor  in  brain- 
building. 

This  factor  is  the  most  important  of  the 
whole.  On  account  of  its  importance  and 
efficiency,  it  is  essential  that  its  action 
should  be  comprehended,  and  its  power  phy- 
siologically guided.  Cerebration,  including 
provisionally  in  that  term  intellection,  emo- 
tion, and  volition,  is  the  brain  at  work.  It 
is  brain-activity,  brain-exercise,  brain-labor. 
The  technical  work  of  the  school  and  col- 
lege, or  study,  is  cerebration.  But  study  is 
not  the  whole  of  cerebration,  any  more  than 
it  is  the  whole  of  education. 

Appropriate  exercise  of  an  organ  aids  its  de- 
velopment, and  increases  its  power.  Appro- 
priate locomotion  strengthens  the   legs :   so 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN  43 

does  digestion  the  stomacli ;  and  vision,  the 
eye.  The  normal  performance  of  a  function 
strengthens  and  develops  the  organ  that  per- 
forms it.  The  brain  is  not  onl}^  no  exception 
to  this  law,  but  is  an  admirable  illustration 
of  it.  Brain-exercise,  that  is,  cerebration, 
strengthens  and  develops  the  brain.  If 
quahty  as  well  as  quantity  is  included  in 
development,  no  limit  can  yet  be  assigned 
to  the  extent  of  the  latter,  and,  conse- 
quently, no  limit  to  the  manifestations  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  power  that  may 
pour  through  the  braiii.  I  presume  we  have 
only  an  imperfect  conception  of  what  the 
human  brain  will  yet  attain  to.  Compared 
now  as  an  instrument  with  what  it  will  be 
ages  hence,  when  both  men  and  women  are 
appropriately  educated,  when  brains  shall  be 
built  out  of  masculine  and  feminine  organi- 
zations that  have  been  appropriately  trained, 
and  from  which  hereditary  evils  have  been 
eliminated,  century  after  century,  by  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  —  the  brain  of  to-day, 
compared  as  an  instrument  with  that  brain 


44  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

of  the  future,  fit  for  the  use  of  a  god,  is  as 
rude  and  imperfect  as  the  lenses  of  two  hun- 
dred years  ago  compared  with  the  micro- 
scopes of  the  present  day.  It  is  the  duty  of 
our  systems  of  education  to  evolve  such 
brains. 

Study  and  student-work  aid  this  evolution ; 
but,  as  we  have  seen,  they  are  not  the  only 
factors  of  brain-building.  Cerebration  is 
brain-exercise ;  and  brain-exercise  strengthens 
and  develops  the  brain.  But  the  brain  is 
evolved  from  the  organization ;  and,  unless 
the  latter  is  normal,  the  evolution  is  im- 
perfect. Moreover,  physiology  informs  us, 
that  conscious,  or,  more  properly  speaking, 
volitional  cerebration  should  not  be  at- 
tempted too  early  in  life.  In  Nature's  order, 
the  nervous  system  of  an  individual  is  the 
last  to  attain  its  full  development ;  and,  of  the 
nervous  system,  the  cerebral  ganglia  reach 
maturity  later  than  any  other  part.  Obvi- 
ously the  latter  should  not  be  put  to  work 
till  they  are  capable  of  labor.  Without 
exercise,  an  organ  wiU   attain  little   or  no 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  45 

development:  excessive  or  premature  exer- 
cise will  monstrously  develop  or  abort  it,  —  in 
either  case  to  the  injury  of  the  rest  of  the 
organism.  What  Goethe  said  of  an  indi- 
vidual in  relation  to  the  community  is  true 
of  an  organ  in  relation  to  the  organism :  — 

"For,  as  I  know,  lie  injures  himself  wlio  is  singly 
Devoted, 
When  for  the  common  cause  the  whole  are  not 
Working  together."  * 

If  a  hundred  boys  or  girls  were  educated 
from  the  age  of  three  to  that  of  sixteen  as 
John  Stuart  Mill  was,  I  am  certain,  that 
while  a  few  might  escape  as  he  did,  and  attain 
marvellous  brain-power,  the  majority  would 
end  in  permanent  invalidism,  imbecility,  or 
premature  death.  It  is  as  unphysiological, 
and  fraught  with  danger,  to  make  the  brain 
work  over  books  before  its  tissue  is  ready  for 
that  sort  of  cerebration,  as  to  coax  a  baby  to 
stand  before  the  bones  of  its  legs  are  stiff 
enough  to  hold  up  the  body. 

•  Hermann  and  Dorothea,  Mis3  Frothingham's  Transla- 
tion, p.  GO. 


46  TEE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  super- 
vision by  the  brain  of  the  various  organs  of 
the  body  is  brain-exercise,  although  we,  that 
is,  the  ego^  may  not  be  conscious  of  it.  In- 
deed, this  fact  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
the  previous  argument.  The  brain,  receiving 
its  nourishment  from  the  blood,  grows  by 
exercise.  But  there  are  two  kinds  of  brain- 
exercise,  —  one  conscious,  the  other  ^uncon- 
scious; one  the  exercise  of  the  brain  in 
supervising  the  organization,  the  other  the 
exercise  of  the  brain  in  cerebration.  Both 
are  necessary  to  the  building  of  a  brain. 
Neither  is  competent  to  the  work  alone. 
Qur  schools  have  taken  conscious  cerebra- 
tion in  charge,  and  pushed  it  to  a  dangerous 
extreme.  They  have  paid  very  little  atten- 
tion to  the  other  factor. 

It  may  be  and  has  been  urged  that  one  of 
these  factors — the  unconscious  exercise  of  the 
brain  in  supervising  the  organization — should 
be  left  out  of  any  system  of  education,  be- 
cause it  can  be  safely  intrusted  to  the  control 
of  instinct.     This  is  a  dangerous  fallacy.    In- 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  47 

stinct,  it  is  true,  will  perpetuate  the  race ;  but 
it  will  onl}^  perpetuate  a  race  of  animals. 
Instinct  never  rises  to  the  plane  of  reason : 
it  has  no  notion  of  progress :  it  will  preserve 
the  race,  and  that  is  all:  it  cares  nothing 
for  the  fittest  and  best.  With  terrible,  sav- 
asre,  and  irresistible  earnestness  and  will, 
regardless  of  whatever  nobility  or  beauty 
may  be  killed  by  it,  instinct  goes  straight  to 
its  object,  — the  conservation  of  the  race.  If 
our  civilization  turns  over  the  care  of  the 
organization  to  this  relentless  power,  there 
will  be  no  hope  of  progress  in  the  future. 
Reason  alone  is  capable  of  solving  the  two 
problems,  — of  securing  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  and  the  perpetuation 
of  the  fittest.  Reason,  therefore,  must  be  the 
architect  of  the  brain. 

It  should  not  be  inferred  from  this  state- 
ment, that  the  attention  of  growing  boys  and 
girls  ought  to  be  forced  upon  their  organs 
and  functions.  Such  a  course  would  be  as 
pregnant  of  evil  as  the  opposite  extreme  of 
laisser  aller.     One  whose  brain  ever  watches 


48  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

his  stomach  is  sure  to  generate  a  worse  dys- 
pepsia there  than  ever  hot  bread  or  unnatu- 
ral luncheons  caused.  But  reason,  led  by 
phj^siology  and  experience,  should  compel 
sufficient  attention  to  the  stomach  to  insure 
appropriate  nourishment  and  painless  diges- 
tion. In  Hke  manner  should  every  part  of 
the  organization  be  treated.  No  organ,  or 
function,  or  system  of  organs,  whether  sexu- 
al, nutritive,  or  nervous,  should  be  regarded 
as  mean,  or  unworthy  of  notice,  and  so  re- 
mitted to  the  brutal  control  of  instinct.  An 
appropriate  education  will  include  them  all 
within  its  purview,  and,  by  judicious  man- 
agement, will  make  them  all,  in  their  degree, 
contribute  to  the  building  of  a  brain,  and,  by 
so  doing,  assure  to  the  cerebral  ganglia  the 
control  of  them  all. 

If  this  is  not  done,  and  education  attends 
only  to  the  single  factor  of  cerebration,  em- 
ploying in  its  work  only  mathematics,  the 
humanities,  and  the  like,  the  organization  is 
sure  to  go  astray,  and,  by  running  into  all 
sorts  of  errors,  diseases,  and  deformities,  to 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  49 

compel  an  attention  which,  organs  that  have 
had  appropriate  care  never  require.  The 
statesman  engrossed  with  social  and  political 
problems,  or  the  scholar  rapt  in  thought,  may 
fancy  that  his  metatarsal  joints  have  little 
connection  with  his  brain ;  but  let  gout  make 
one  of  them  blush,  and  both  statesman  and 
scholar  will  be  convinced  that  the  brain  has 
a  common  interest  with  its  farthest  extremity. 
And  this  community  of  interest  teaches  that 
the  unnoticed  growing  and  proper  use  of  a 
toe  contribute  a  quota,  however  small,  to  the 
building  of  a  brain.  Mr.  Lecky  says,  "  that 
harmonious,  sustained  manhood,  without  dis- 
proportion, or  anomaly,  or  eccentricity, — 
that  godlike  type  in  which  the  same  divine 
energy  seems  to  thrill  with  equal  force 
through  every  faculty  of  mind  and  body; 
the  majesty  of  a  single  power  never  deran- 
ging the  balance,  or  impamng  the  symmetry 
of  the  whole, — was  probably  more  keenly 
appreciated  and  more  frequently  exhibited 
in  ancient  Greece    than  in  any  succeeding 


50  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

civilization."  *    In  no  respect  should  a  Chris- 
tian fall  below  a  heathen  civilization. 

We  learn,  from  these  physiological  consid- 
erations, that  the  method  by  which  Nature 
constructs  a  brain  is  the  same  for  the  two 
sexes.  In  both,  the  brain  is  evolved  from 
the  organization.  In  both,  all  the  organs  of 
the  body  are  connected  with  the  brain  by 
inter-nuncial  fibres.  In  both,  the  brain,  by 
means  of  these  inter-nuncial  fibres,  super- 
vises the  separate  and  united  functions  of 
the  organs,  and  co-ordinates  and  controls 
their  action.  In  both,  this  supervision  and 
control  is  an  essential  factor  in  building  a 
brain.  In  both,  the  normal  development  of 
an  organ  aids  the  normal  growth  of  the 
brain,  and  the  abnormal  growth  of  an  organ 
reflects  its  error  back  upon  the  brain.  In 
both,  the  brain  is  favorably  or  unfavorably 
affected  by  the  normal  or  abnormal  per- 
formance of  all  the  functions.  In  both,  the 
highest  development  of  the  cerebra  is  con- 

*  History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe,  vol.  ii.  p.  351. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  51 

tingent  upon,  and,  in  point  of  time,  secondary 
to,  tli8  normal  development  of  tlie  rest  of 
the  brain.  In  both,  brain-exercise,  or  cere- 
bration, such  as  study  and  intellectual  ac- 
tivity, develop  the  brain,  and  throw  down 
upon  all  the  inferior  organs  a  healthy  and 
conservative  influence.  The  parallel  is  com- 
plete between  the  sexes.  The  method  that 
builds  a  man's  builds  also  a  woman's  brain. 
But  this  identity  of  method  in  cerebral  ar- 
chitecture, wliich  requires  that  every  organ 
and  function  in  both  sexes  should  have 
appropriate  development  and  exercise,  as  a 
part  of  brain-building,  implies,  or  rather  ne- 
cessitates, a  difference  in  education  between 
the  sexes,  just  so  far  as  there  is  a  difference 
in  organization  between  them,  and  no  farther. 
Identical  education  of  the  sexes  is  in  the  last 
analysis  equivalent  to  an  unjust  discrimina- 
tion between  them  :  their  appropriate  and 
consequently  different  education  is  equivalent 
to  the  same  method  of  brain-building.  The 
object  of  education  for  the  sexes  is  the  same. 
The    physiological  principle    which    should 


52  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

guide  their  education  —  that  is,  the  appropri- 
ate development  of  the  whole  organization,  so 
as  to  evolve  the  best  brain — is  the  same.  The 
apphcation  of  this  principle  to  home,  social, 
and  school  life,  demands  diversity  of  manage- 
ment, —  the  same  law,  but  diversity  of  appli- 
cation. 

The  only  difference  between  the  sexes  is 
sex ;  but  this  difference  is  radical  and  funda- 
mental, and  expresses  itself  in  radical  and 
fundamental  differences  of  organization,  that 
extend  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  forms 
of  life.  Progress  is  impossible  without  accept- 
ing and  respecting  difference  of  sex.  That  it 
is  phj'siologically  possible  to  diminish  it  by  an 
education  arranged  for  that  end,  no  physiolo- 
gist can  doubt ;  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that 
identical  methods  of  educating  the  sexes, 
such  as  prevail  in  many  of  our  schools,  tend 
that  way.  One  result  of  a  school-system 
animated  by  such  methods  is  to  make  a  very 
poor  kind  of  men  out  of  women,  and  a 
very  poor  kind  of  women  out  of  men.  For- 
tunate for  the  Republic,  if  no  illustrations  of 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  53 

the  tnith  of  this  remark  could  be  found 
within  its  borders. 

"The  best  quality,  noblest  power,  and  su- 
preme beauty  of  the  two  sexes,  grow  out  of 
their  dissimilarity,  not  out  of  their  identity. 
Differentiation  is  Nature's  method  of  ascent. 
We  should  cultivate  the  difference  of  the 
sexes,  not  try  to  hide  or  abolish  it.  When  a 
gardener  seeks  to  produce  the  best  possible 
apple  or  peach,  he  selects  one  whose  beauty 
or  flavor  is  desirable,  and  cultivates  the  se- 
lected difference.  Nature  has  selected  dif- 
ference of  sex  by  which  to  give  humanity  its 
choicest  beauty  and  quality.  The  perfection 
of  one  sex  is  unattainable  by  the  other,  and 
at  present  is  rarely  comprehended  by  the 
other.  Each  loves  and  reverences  in  the 
other  what  it  cannot  grasp  itself,  and  despises 
any  imitation.  Let  education  respect  and 
cultivate  Nature's  selected  difference. 

The  first  step  in  the  practical  application 
of  these  principles  is  to  heed  the  voice  that 
fell  on  Peter's  ear,  and  echoes  still  in  ours, 
bidding  us  call  nothing  common  or  unclean 


54  V  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

tliat  bears  a  divine  stamp.  The  whole  orgaui« 
zation,  and  all  its  functions,  must  be  lifted 
above  the  low  plane  of  animal  instinct,  and 
confided  to  the  charge  of  reason.  Sex  and 
its  functions  must  be  recognized  as  factors  in 
education,  as  aids  in  brain-building.  Some- 
thing has  been  done  in  this  direction  by  the 
discussions  of  the  past  year  in  Europe  and 
this  country  upon  the  periodicity  of  the  fe- 
male constitution.  The  secrecy  and  mj's- 
tery  that  rested,  like  an  incubus  or  evil 
spell  ipon  it,  have  been  wrenched  from  our 
An  e  ican  civihzation  and  education,  and  will 
r.v^er  be  put  on  again. 

" Ue  next  step,  so  far  as  girls  are  concerned, 
h  to  acquire  a  complete  notion  of  the  value 
of  periodicity  as  an  element  in  female  edu- 
cation. This  must  be  done  by  ascertaining 
the  evil  that  follows  a  disregard  of  it,  and 
the  good  that  follows  its  normal  action. 
When  this  has  been  accomplished,  it  wUl  be 
easy  to  assign  to  periodicity  its  proper  posi- 
tion among  the  other  factors  —  such  as  nutri- 
tion, ventilation,  cerebration,  and  the  like  — 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  55 

that  belong  to  education,  and  contribute  to 
the  building  of  a  brain. 

it  is  obvious  that  this  factor  must  be 
studied  with  regard  to  woman  alone ;  for 
there  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  male  consti- 
tution. 

The  evils  that  man  incurs  from  a  disregard 
of  his  peculiar  organization  are  not  the  same 
as  those  that  beset  the  path  of  woman ;  but 
they  are  not  less  terrible  than  hers.  In  this 
regard,  his  education  must  be  equally  circum- 
spect, but  very  different.  When  we  consider 
the  diseases,  breeding  rottenness  in  the  flesh 
and  bones,  degenerations  of  the  brain,  imbe- 
cility, impotence,  and  premature  death,  with 
which  Nature  piinishes  his  errors  of  passion 
and  sensuaHty,  we  cannot  justly  say,  that, 
even  so  far  as  sex  is  concerned,  woman  is 
unfairly  weighted  for  the  race  of  life  in  com- 
parison with  him.  An  appropriate  education 
will  recognize  the  special  differences,  guard 
against  the  special  dangers,  and  obtain  the 
special  benefits  that  spring  from  sex. 

Having  recognized  periodicity  as  a  factoi 


56  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

in  the  education  of  girls,  and  having  acquired 
some  notion  of  the  evils  which  a  neglect  of 
it  may  cause,  the  next  step  is  to  assign  to  it 
its  rightful  position  as  an  agent,  or  force, 
in  the  building  of  a  brain. 

The  importance  of  its  position  cannot  be 
doubted ;  for  it  represents  not  only  an  essen- 
tial organ,  but  an  essential  system  of  organs, 
in  the  female  organism.  It  is  impossible  and 
unnecessary  to  determine  which  of  the  three 
great  divisions  of  the  organization  —  the  nu- 
tritive, the  reiDroductive,  and  the  nervous  — 
is  the  most  imx^ortant.  It  is  enough  to  knoM' 
that  the  consensus  of  all  is  necessary  to 
the  development  of  each,  and  equally  the 
development  of  each,  to  the  evolution  and 
perfecting  of  the  whole.  A  normal  periodi- 
cal action  represents,  as  a  rule,- the  integrity 
and  proper  management  of  the  apparatus,  one 
of  whose  functions  it  is,  as  much  as  normal 
digestion  represents  the  integrity  and  proper 
management  of  the  nutritive  apparatus.  Its 
importance,  then,  comes  chiefly  from  its  rep- 
resentative character.    It  represents  a  system 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  57 

of  organs  and  functions  essential  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  individual  and  of  the  race, 
-—  essential  to  the  building  of  every  woman's 
:ndividual  brain,  and  to  the  transmission  of 
the  accumulated  brain-power  of  the  past. 
Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we  must  accept 
the  fact,  men  and  women  both,  and  act  upon 
it,  that  the  brain  cannot  attain  its  best  de- 
velopment, except  through  the  development 
of  the  body.  "  I  do  not  wish  to  be  called  a 
body,  or  treated  as  an  animal,"  said  a  bright 
woman.  Her  aspiration  was  just ;  but,  for  its 
realization,  it  is  necessary  that  the  animal  and 
the  body  out  of  which  the  woman  is  built 
should  be  made  to  contribute  their  share  to 
the  building  of  her  brain.  When  that  is 
built,  its  grandeur  and  beauty  and  power 
will  conceal  and  transfigure  the  body.  Wo- 
men have  been  so  long  called  angels  by 
flatterers,  and  painted  with  wings  by  artists, 
and  sung  as  goddesses  by  poets,  that  some 
of  them  are  indignant  when  told  that  they 
Lave  bodies.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  men 
and  women  will  be  angels  yet,  and  that  the 


58  TUE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

flatterers,  artists,  and  poets  are  prophets  in 
disguise ;  but,  if  this  is  to  be  the  case,  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  iter  ad  astra  is  not 
over  despised,  mismanaged,  and  diseased 
bodies,  but  out  of  harmoniously-developed, 
acknowledged,  and  transfigured  ones.* 

The  practical  application  of  these  prin- 
ciples to  education  is  less  difficult  than 
appears  at  first  thought.  Much,  probably 
the  larger  part,  of  the  difficulty  will  disap- 
pear as  soon  as  our  schools  and  social  order 
recognize  periodicity  as  a  factor  in  brain- 
building  and  education.  After  this  is  recog- 
nized, experience  will  be  the  best  guide  in 
solving  all  other  difficulties ;  and  the  solution 


*  The  animal  part  of  man  is  thus  observed  to  be,  in  a 
measure,  independent  of  the  human,  and  may  maintain  a 
separate  existence.  The  characteristically  human  part  of 
his  organization,  however,  is  not  thus  independent  of  the 
animal  organs,  but  is  united  to  them  by  an  mseparable 
bond.  The  cerebrum  is  the  flower  of  organic  creation, 
its  supreme  coronation.  Its  vital  integrity  is  main- 
tained by  the  corporeal  system.  The  radicle  may  Uve 
and  flourish  independent  of  the  flower;  but,  if  the  flower 
be  disconnected  from  the  radicle,  it  speedily  dies." — 
D.  A.  GOKTON,   M.D. :  Principles  of  Mental  Ili/rjicne,  p.  19. 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN.  59 

must  be  worked  out  chiefly  by  women  them- 
selves. Fortunately,  Nature,  though  un  im- 
placable enemy,  is  the  kindest  of  friends. 
Obedience  to  her  smooths  ever}^  pathway. 
Physiology  assures  the  teacher  and  the  home 
that  Nature  only  requires  in  this  direction  the 
normal  performance  of  the  function.  What- 
ever does  not  interfere  with  its  normal  per- 
formance is  admissible.  So  susceptible  is  it  of 
management  in  youth,  that  cerebration  alone 
will  sometimes  guide  it.  I  have  seen  cases 
in  which  the  prescription  of  study  —  mental 
work  —  alone  was  enough  to  turn  its  abnormal 
into  its  normal  performance  ;  and  other  cases 
precisely  the  reverse,  in  which  study,  emotion, 
or  other  mental  excitement,  especially  at  the 
juncture  referred  to,  so  checked  or  increased 
it  as  to  insure  disease  and  threaten  life. 
Surely  a  function  that  is  so  sensitive  and 
ductile  during  the  age  of  development,  and, 
if  then  mismanaged,  so  difficult  of  control  in 
later  years,  and  that  represents  such  an 
important  part  of  the  female  organization, 
should  be  reasonably  guided  and  managed. 


60  'THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

Like  every  other  function,  its  norma]  per- 
formance not  only  strengthens  the  organs 
represented  by  it,  but  the  system  at  large ; 
so  that  special  and  general  growth  and  power 
are  gained  by  its  appropriate  management. 
It  should  not  be  forgotten,  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  the  pain  (dysmenorrhoea)  by  which 
Nature  so  often  and  so  severely  punishes  a 
neglect  of  this  function  uses  up,  that  is, 
spends,  an  amount  of  nerve-force  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  pain  endured  ;  and  that 
this  nerve-force  represents  power  withdrawn 
from  the  brain.  If  proper  methods  of  edu- 
cation are  devised  which  will  not  develop 
pain,  there  will  be  greater  nerve-force  at 
command  for  brain-work  in  adult  life. 

Suppose  education,  instead  of  standing,  as 
it  generally  does  with  us,  for  schooling 
alone,  stood,  as  it  ought  to  do,  for  all  appro- 
priate training,  we  might  divide  it  into  the 
four  divisions,  of  physical  education,  or  exer- 
cise :  social  education,  or  society ;  domestic 
educixtion,  or  home  life ;  and  technical  edu- 
cation,  or  study.      If   not   more   than   five 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN.  61 

hours  *  a  day,  or,  including  music,  six  hours  a 
day,  were  devoted  to  studying,  both  in  school 
Jtnd  out,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  time  for 
other  purposes,  we  should  probably  find  that 
Nature's  normal  remission  of  education,  her 
"  Sunday  of  monthly  rest,"  would  take  some- 
thing   ike  the   following   order,  —  at  least, 

*  "  "VNTiile  it  is  easy  oftentimes  to  see  that  this  or  that 
person  is  overtasking  his  powers,  it  is  impossible  to  lay 
down  any  general  rule  on  the  subject,  that  would  not  re- 
quire too  much  of  some,  and  too  little  of  others.  In  youth 
and  early  manhood,  especially  if  the  constitution  is  de- 
ficient in  vigor,  there  would  be  danger  from  a  degiee  of 
application  that  might  be  safe  enough  at  a  later  period, 
when  the  brain  has  become  hardened  by  age  and  regular 
labor.  So,  too,  habits  of  active  physical  exercise  will  en- 
able a  man  to  accomplish  an  amount  of  intellectual  labor 
that  would  utterly  break  down  one  of  sedentary  habits. 
After  making  all  due  allowance  for  these  differences,  I 
think  we  may  say  that  few  can  exceed  six  hows  a  day  of 
close  mental  application  without  seriously  endangering  the 
health  of  the  brain;  while,  for  most  persons,  a  not  unrea- 
sonable degi'ee  of  prudence  would  prescribe  a  much 
shorter  period"  (Isaac  Ray,  M.D. :  Mental  Ilyfjiene,  pp 
110,111).  The  Italics  are  the  author's.  The  above  state- 
ment evidently  refers  to  boys  and  men.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  of  them;  but  it  applies  to  girls  during  the  epoch  of 
development  with  much  greater  force  than  it  does  to  boys 


62  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

sucli  lias  been  my  observation  of  it,  —  all 
girls  would  require  a  periodical  remission  of 
variable  length,  from  the  labor  of  physical 
education,  such  as  gymnastics,  long  walks, 
and  the  like ;  and  also  all  would  require  a 
remission  from  the  labor  of  social  education, 
such  as  dancing,  visiting,  and  similar  offices. 
The  other  two  departments  of  education, 
domestic  and  technical,  would  only  be  in- 
terfered with  in  exceptional  cases ;  but, 
in  these  exceptional  cases,  the  remission  is 
of  vital  importance  to  the  individuals  them- 
selves, and  the  school  must  provide  for  it,  or 
be  directly  responsible  for  lifelong  invalid- 
ism, possible  sterility,  and  death.  If  our 
schools  continue  to  require  seven,  eight,  arid 
nine  hours  of  daily  stud}^,  including  in  this 
estimate  out-of-school  study,  there  should  be 
a  periodical  intermission  for  female  p>upils  of 
school  as  ivell  as  of  physical  and  social  education. 
The  influences  of  school  and  social  life  are  so 
interwoven,  that  it  is  difficult  to  separate 
them.  There  is  an  undoubted  tyranny  of 
fashion  over  them  both,  to  which  many  yield 


THE  BUILvING   OF  A   BRAIN.  63 

an  unquestioning  and  often  a  willing  obedi- 
ence. There  is  also  a  tyranny  of  the  school 
over  the  family  and  social  life,  which  presses 
lightly  on  boys,  but  heavily  on  girls.  A 
more  flexible  school  system  will  abolish  the 
tyranny  of  the  school  over  the  famil}- ;  and  a 
nobler  civilization,  that  of  fashion  over  social 
life. 

The  stimulus  of  emulation,  of  constant, 
daily  competitive  work,  affects  the  two  sexes 
differently  during  the  epoch  of  develop- 
ment. A  boy  is  less  susceptible  to  this 
stimulus  at  that  time  than  a  girl;  so  that 
when  the  same  stimulus  is  applied  to  the  two 
sexes,  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  way, 
if  enough  of  it  is  appHed  to  keep  a  boy  well 
up,  it  is  a  physiological  injury  to  a  girl ;  if 
only  enough  is  applied  to  keep  her  properly 
at  work,  the  residt  is  a  physiological  injury 
to  him. 

These  and  many  other  matters  of  detail, 
including  co-education,  must  be  determined 
by  experience.  Physiology  is  concerned 
only  with  the  principles  of  healthy  develop- 


64  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

ment,  which,  within  their  range,  must  guide 
the  education  of  both  sexes.  Physiology 
demands  an  appropriate  education  for  both, 
and  condeions  the  effort,  which,  by  consigning 
both  to  an  identical  education,  would  abolish 
Nature's  process  of  differentiation,  and  pro- 
duce identical  sexual  development  and  the 
end  of  the  race.  Brains  of  highest  worth 
must  be  built  by  an  educational  process  that 
leaves  men  potential  fathers,  and  women 
potential  mothers.  Sensuality  must  not  be 
allowed  to  make  animals  of  one  sex,  nor 
ill-regulated  cerebration  to  unsex  the  other. 

An  eminent  English  physiological  authority 
has  recently  defended  the  thesis,  that,  because 
there  is  sex  in  mind,  there  must  be  sex  in 
education.*  I  should  prefer  to  alter  the  terms 
of  the  statement,  and  say,  that,  because  there 
is  sex  in  body,  there  must  be  sex  in  mind,  and 
sex  in  education.  When  this  is  acknowledged, 
and  one  of  Nature's  vital  factors  in  brain-build- 
ing, that  has  been  so  long  refused  a  place  in  our 

*  Henet  JVIATJDSLEY,  M.D.  :  Foi-tnighthj  Rev ieio,  April 
1874. 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  65 

training  of  girls,  is  added  to  tlie  other  factors 
of  education,  and  entered  in  the  rubric  of  the 
schools,  we  may  hope  for  brains  of  the  largest 
development  and  finest  quahty.  When  that 
time  arrives,  we  may  hope  for  both  sexes  that 
identical  will  give  place  to  appropriate  edu- 
cation ;  that  brains  built  out  of  the  body  and 
by  the  body,  as  well  as  out  of  books  and  by 
books,  will  crown  and  control  every  organ 
and  function;  that  sex  will  be  made  sub- 
servient, not  to  passion,  but  to  reason ;  and 
thus  shall  not  only  the  grasp  of  our  race  be 
permanently  assured  upon  this  Western 
world,  but  the  highest  development  of  the 
individual,  the  noblest  manhood  and  the 
loftiest  womanhood,  be   assured   here  like« 

wise. 

6 


AN  ERROR  IN  FEMALE  BUILDING. 


PART  n. 

AN  ERROR   EST  FEMALE  BUILDING. 

"Wie  soil  man  aber  diesem  Uebelstande,  dem  Gegen- 
satze  zwischen  Schul-  iind  Naturgesetze  abheLfen?  Eins 
vonbeiden  muss  nachgeben!  Das  Naturgesetz  is  nicht 
willkiirlich,  es  beruht  aiif  ewigen  Dictaten:  das  Schul- 
gesetz  aber  ist  eiu  willkurliches,  A'on  Menacben  gemachtes, 
zeitUches ;  es  muss  sicb  dem  iSTaturgesetze  iiuterwerfen.  — 
Schul-DidteUk,  p.  186. 

By  a  recent  essay,*  carefully  limited  to  a 
discussion  of  the  single  factor  of  periodicity 
in  its  relation  to  the  education  of  girls,  and 
only  to  the  pathological  side  of  that  factor,  or 
the  evils  which  follow  a  disregard  of  it,  I  hoped 
to  call  the  attention  of  teachers  and  the  com- 
munity to  this  concealed  and  essential  ele- 
ment. This  hope  has  been  fulfilled.  Abun- 
dant evidence  has  appeared,  not  only  of  the 
interest  taken  in  the  subject  of  the  relation 
of  sex  to  education,  but  of  a  general  convic- 


*  Sex  iu  Education. 

69 


70  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

tion  of  its  great  importance  ;  and  numerous 
data  have  been  furnished  by  observers  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  which  are  of 
great  value  in  determining  the  relation  of 
periodicity  to  the  other  factors  of  education. 
Like  the  essay  referred  to,  many  of  these 
data  show  only  the  evils  which  a  neglect  of 
periodicity  generates ;  but  these  evils  indi- 
cate and  measure  the  infinite  good  that  would 
follow  a  normal  management  of  it.  They 
should  be  fully  comprehended,  so  as  to  be 
avoided.  Like  lighthouses  along  the  coast, 
that  warn  the  mariner  of  rocks  and  quick- 
sands, a  knowledge  of  them  signals  dangers 
that  threaten  to  shipwreck  our  race  in  this 
Western  hemisphere. 

Some  of  the  following  statements  have 
already  appeared  in  the  public  journals. 
Most  of  them  have  been  sent  to  me  privately, 
without  solicitation,  and  coupled  with  a  per- 
mission to  publish  them,  if  their  publication 
was  deemed  desirable.  They  come  from  a 
variety  of  sources,  and  are  the  more  valuable 
on  that  account.     A  large  number  have  been 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  71 

furnished  by  women  who  have  themselves 
suffered,  or  whose  daughters  have  suffered, 
from  the  mattcntion  of  our  schools  to  the 
periodicity  of  the  female  constitution.  The 
number  and  size  of  all  the  communications 
that  I  have  received  upon  this  subject  would 
form  a  portly  volume.  The  few  that  are 
herewith  pubhshed  concern  especially  the 
relation  of  sex  to  education,  and  are  pre- 
sented as  a  contribution  to  educational  and 
social  science.  It  will  be  observed  that  all 
of  them  are  the  result  of  the  personal  obser- 
vation of  the  writers  who  report  them.  They 
fall  naturally  into  three  classes,  —  1st,  Those 
from  public  documents,  like  the  Report  of 
the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massachusetts ; 
2d,  Those  fi'om  parents  and  school-teachers, 
who  approach  the  subject  from  a  parent's  or 
teacher's  point  of  view  ;  and,  3d,  Those  from 
physicians,  who  look  at  it  from  a  physiolo- 
gical standpoint. 

1st,  Public  Investigations. — In  the  Fifth 
Annual  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Health 
of  Massachusetts,  which   appeared  January, 


72  TEE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

1874,  tliere  is  an  article  on  "  School  Hygiene," 
by  Dr.  Frederick  Winsor  of  Winchester.  It 
was  prepared  by  direction  of  the  Board.  As 
one  method  of  obtaining  data  with  regard 
to  the  hygienic  condition  of  the  schools  of 
Massachusetts,  the  Board  sent  a  Circular  to 
teachers,  physicians,  and  others  in  the  State, 
sohciting  replies  to  a  series  of  questions,  of 
which  the  two  first  were  these :  — 

"1.  Is  one  sex  more  liable  than  the  other  to  suffer  In 
health  from  attendance  on  school? 

"2.  Does  the  advent  of  puberty  increase  this  lia- 
bility? " 

Replies  were  received  from  one  hundred 
and  sixty  persons,  of  whom  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  are  stated  to  be  physicians ;  nineteen, 
physicians  and  members  of  school  commit- 
tees ;  fourteen,  teachers  of  experience ;  and 
six,  superintendents  of  schools.  The  Circular 
of  the  Board  requested  that  all  the  replies 
should  be  "  based  on  personal  observation." 
The  result  of  this  inquiry,  so  far  as  it  con- 
cerns the  relation  of  sex  to  education,  may  be 
gathered  by  looking  over  the  following  ex- 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  73 

tract  from  the  Report,  which  also  presents  the 
conclusion  that  Dr.  Winsor  reached  upon  the 
subject  we  are  considering  :  — 

"  Question  1.  — Is  one  sex  more  liable  than  the  other  to 
suffer  in  health  from  attendance  on  school?  " 

Answered  substantially  as  follows  :  — 

"  Females  more  hahle  than  males,"  by  109 

"  Males  more  liable  than  females,"  by  1 

"  Both  aUke  Uable,"  by  31 

"  Neither  is  in  danger,"  by  4 

"  ISTot  in  district  schools,"  by  1 
"  Not  if  both  sexes  exercise  alike  in  the  open  air," 

by  1 

"  Unable  to  answer,"  by  5 

One  correspondent  says,  "  Girls  in  the  pro- 
portion of  two  to  one  ; "  another,  "  During 
forty  years'  practice  in  the  country,  I  recol- 
lect but  one  instance  of  a  male  who  has 
suffered ;  while  I  can  recall  many  instances 
of  females." 

QUOTATIONS   FROM  COERESPONDENTS. 

118.  "  The  female  scholars  are  more  sus- 
ceptiljle  to  emotional  influences  ;  and  if  there 
be  stimuli  in  a  school,  appealing  to  pride  and 


74  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

vanity,   they   are   so   emulous   as  to  injure 
themselves. 

"  This  is  the  source  of  most  of  the  injury 
suffered  by  the  scholars  in  most  schools." 

80.  "  Beyond  doubt,  the  girls,  from  the 
fact  that  they  are  girls,  are  more  liable  to 
suffer  than  boys.  In  my  own  experience 
with  both  sexes,  I  found  this  excess  of  lia- 
bility to  be  very  manifest ;  and  I  governed 
my  methods  accordingly,  keeping  limitation 
in  abeyance  with  them,  and  moderating 
brain-work,  and  supervising  physical  exer 
cises. 

"  At  certain  periods,  I  think  that  study, 
with  guis,  should  ivliolly  cease  for  some  days. 
Any  one  who  has  taught  boys  and  girls  — 
in  separate  schools,  I  mean  —  must  have 
noticed  the  greater  proportionate  irregularity 
of  attendance  by  the  latter ;  and,  as  a  parent, 
he  would  readily  know  the  reason,  and  know 
the  necessity  of  cessation  from  work. 

"  I  refer  to  girls  between  twelve  and 
twenty  years  of  age." 

148.  "  While  pleas  for  lenity  to  boys,  on 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  75 

account  of  feeble  health,  are  rare,  they  are  a 
common  thing  in  connection  with  the  girls." 
"102.  "My  pupils  were  all  girls.  I  gave 
them  more  variety  of  study,  and  less  hard 
labor,  than  boys  can  bear." 

Many  others  of  the  109  express  themselves 
in  tei-ms  equally  strong ;  some  of  whom  will 
be  quoted  elsewhere. 

"  Question  2.  —Does  the  advent  of  puberty  increase  this 
Uability?" 

Answered  substantially  as  follows  :  — 

"Yes,"  by  120 

"Ko,"by  12 

"Uncertain,"  by  9 

Of  those  who  answer,  "  Yes,"  many  add, 
"  for  girls  ; "  and  it  is  e\-ident  that  nearly  all 
have  the.  same  hmitation  in  mind. 

Two  call  attention  to  the  important  fact, 
that,  at  the  time  of  the  second  dentition, 
children  are  pecuharly  liable  to  be  injuriously 
affected.  It  is  a  fact  that  many  boys,  espe- 
cially those  of  rapid  growth,  need  a  particu- 


76  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

larly  careful  hygienic  watch  at  the  advent  of 
puberty. 

QUOTATIONS   FEOM   COERESPONDENTS. 

148.  "  This  baleful  result  becomes  very 
strikingly  manifested  as  the  girls  approach 
the  age  of  puberty.  Under  the  abnormal 
conditions  of  the  physical  system  produced 
by  this  cause,  not  only  do  the  more  emulous 
and  studious  girls  suffer  from  the  study 
which  they  evidently  ought  to  intermit,  but 
the  ordinary  and  habitual  task-work  neces- 
sary to  keep  abreast  of  the  studies  is  far 
too  severe  a  draught  on  many  constitutions. 
Not  a  class  passes  through  our  high  schools 
of  which  some  of  the  girls  are  not  compelled 
to  discontinue  a  part  or  all  of  their  studies, 
•  for  a  time,  on  this  account ;  and,  not  unfre- 
quently,  they  cease  altogether  their  connec- 
tion with  the  school,  too  feeble  to  venture  a 
renewal  of  their  studies.  The  teachers  are 
watchful  and  considerate  in  this  behalf ;  but 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  individualize  so  as 
to   guard    against    evil    results.      Little    or 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  77 

nothing^  of  all  this  is  noticeable  in  reorard  to 
boys." 

■  80.  "  It  is  precisely  that  advent,  and  its 
consequent  peculiarity  with  girls  especially, 
to  which  I  refer  ;  and  any  trifling,  or  neglect 
of  care,  in  regard  to  it,  is  all  but  unpardona- 
ble. With  boys  the  case,  under  my  expe- 
rience, was  wholly  different.  If  they  respect 
and  leave  innocent  God's  sacred  means  of 
the  physical  life  of  our  race,  their  own  physi- 
cal strength  will  go  on  increasing,  and  they 
will  need  no  other  recreative  unbending  than 
what  they  will  get  from  the  usual  manly  ex- 
ercises of  our  properly-spent  vacations  ;  or, 
under  a  better  system  than  ours,  from  union 
of  technic  hand-work  with  mental  study." 

111.  "  Girls  suffer  more  than  boys  from 
attendance  at  school.  Were,  however,  the 
liabits  of  the  two  sexes  the  same  in  regard 
to  out-door  play  and  exercise,  there  would 
probably  be  no  difference  between  the  power 
of  resistance  in  one  and  the  other  sex  till  the 
approach  of  puberty.  As  a  girl  draws  near 
this  period,  menstruates,  and  becomes  capa- 


78  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

ble  of  child-bearing,  the  school  discipline 
and  work  must  bend  to  her  bodily  needs  in 
a  manner  not  required  by  boys.  Her  men- 
strual week  (one-fourth  of  her  time,  or  near- 
ly that)  must  be  respected.  During  these 
days,  her  mental  powers  are  easily  over- 
strained. The  depressing  mfluence  of  con- 
finement in  the  schoolroom,  long-continued 
standing,  or  even  sitting,  do  her  bodily  harm. 
The  neglect  of  these  demands  of  her  system, 
as  that  of  an  intended  breeder  and  nurser  of 
men  and  women,  the  effort  to  treat  her  as 
though  she  were  a  boy,  will,  in  a  large 
minority  of  instances,  do  unmistaken  harm 
to  those  concerned,  and,  eventually,  to  the 
whole  community.  Could  the  custom  of 
keeping  girls  between  the  ages  of  thirteen 
years  and  nineteen  out  of  school,  and  at 
moderate  rest,  during  the  days  of  menstrua- 
tion, become  established  among  us,  a  certain 
number  might  suffer  restraint  not  absolutely 
demanded ;  but  the  general  result  would  be 
an  incalculable  gain  to  the  health,  present 
and  prospective,  of  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Commonwealth." 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN.  79 

"It  is  the  opinion  of  more  than  seven-tenths 
of  the  correspondents,  that  girls  are  more 
liable  than  boys  to  be  injured  in  health  in 
our  schools  ;  and,  of  eighty-seven-hundredths., 
that  this  liability  increases  with  the  advent 
of  puberty ;  and,  to  support  this  opinion, 
detailed  testimony  might  be  quoted  from  all 
quarters,  both  from  sources  already  accessible 
to  the  public  and  from  manuscripts. 

"But  it  is  unnecessary.  This  greater  liabil- 
ity in  the  female  is  an  established  fact ;  and 
our  State  and  local  school-boards  should  at 
once  take  steps  to  modify  our  system  of  edu- 
cation in  accordance  with  the  fact,  however 
great  may  be  the  change  required.  Up  to 
the  thirteenth  year,  identical  co-education  is 
hygienically  safe,  with  the  proviso  that  we 
make  a  most  cautious  use  of  emulation  in  all 
its  forms,  since  at  no  age  is  it  as  safe  for  girls 
as  for  boys.  After  the  thirteenth  year,  girls 
should  not  be  tasked  or  disciplined  just  as 
boys  are.  For  them,  such  flexibility  should 
be  introduced  into  the  school  regime  as  shall 
fully  recognize  the  feminine  law  of  periodi- 


80  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

city,  for  want  of  which,  recognition  our  high 
and  normal  schools,  and  the  first  classes  of 
our  grammar  schools,  are  injuring  many,  and 
endangering  all  their  female  scholars.  "Were 
it  not  that  so  small  a  proportion  of  our  school 
children  enter  (in  Boston,  in  1870,  3|  per 
cent),  and  so  much  smaller  a  proportion 
(scarcely  one  per  cent  in  Boston)  persevere 
in  the  high-school  course,  we  should  stand 
aghast  at  the  extent  of  this  mischief.  As  it 
is,  it  falls  mainly  on  those  whose  school  edu- 
cation is  carried  farthest,  to  whom  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  point  as  the  pride  and 
flower  of  our  common  schools.  And  the 
numbers  of  this  class  are  increasing  in  a  pro- 
portion much  greater  than  the  general  in- 
crease of  school-attendance.  In  1872,  the 
increase  of  our  school-attendance  was  2,941, 
while  the  increase  of  scholars  over  fifteen 
years  old  was  1,238,  — more  than  four-tenths 
of  the  whole  increase.  Seven-eighths  of  our 
teachers  suffer  from  it,  but  would  suffer  far 
less,  if  they  had  not  been  under  the  same  sys- 
tem during  the  formative  period  of  life.  That 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  81 

school-system  which  is  in  harmony  with 
hygiene  will  recognize  not  only  the  law  of 
pexiodicity,  but  the  fact,  that,  throughout 
the  ivliole  time  between  the  thirteenth  and 
the  nineteenth  year,  the  female  cannot,  with 
impunity,  bear  the  same  mental  strain  as 
the  male." 

The  principle  here  insisted  on  involves 
a  very  great  change  in  our  school-methods, 
but  by  no  means  an  unpossible  change.  Let 
once  the  necessity  of  it  be  widely  felt,  and 
the  reform  "will  get  itself  made,"  as  has 
been  wisely  said.  It  need  not  involve  a  great 
increase  of  absenteeism. 

In  reply  to  a  different  question  from  the 
Board  of  Health  than  either  of  the  two  xDre- 
viously  quoted,  a  correspondent,  numbered 
148,  says, — 

"  It  is,  however,  the  nervous  system  of  the 
girls  which  is  affected  by  school-influences  in 
a  very  peculiar  and  striking  manner,  far  be- 
yond what  occurs  in  the  same  connection 
with  boys.     Delicately  sensitive  in  their  or 

0 


82  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

ganization,  as  compared  with  the  boys,  and 
quick  to  respond  to  appeals  to  their  love  of 
approbation,  the  studious  girls  are  filled  with 
eager  emulation  the  moment  that  a  prize  is 
offered  for  their  competition,  or  when  the 
ordinary  stimuli,  active  in  every  thoroughly 
earnest  school,  inspire  to  severe  exertion. 
Their  effort  becomes  ]3ainfully  intense.  They 
strain  every  nerve  in  their  endeavors,  a  rest- 
less anxiety  meanwhile  morbidly  preying 
upon  and  diminishing  their  strength.  And 
in  those  localities  where  the  principle  of 
emulation  is  systematically  and  largely 
employed  in  the  schools,  where  public 
examinations,  exhibitions,  festivals,  medals, 
and  other  details  of  competitive  machinery, 
are  ceaselessly  exerting  a  harassing  influence, 
the  effect  upon  the  girls  must  be  fearfully 
pernicious.  Many  a  wreck  of  health  must 
periodically  occur,  —  yes,  many  a  forfeiture 
of  life  itself." 

The  third  section  of  the  Fifth  Annual  Re- 
port (1874)  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 


THE    BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  83 

Labor  of  Massachusetts  contains  tlie  follow- 
ing curious  and  interesting  statements.  The 
inTestigations  reported  by  the  Bureau  are 
novel  in  their  character;  and  the  results 
obtained  have  a  direct  bearing  upon  the 
relation  of  sex  to  education,  as  well  as  to 
labor :  — 

"  The  important  consideration  of  the  effects 
of  labor  upon  young  guis  at  pecuhar  periods 
of  life  has  escaped  attention  equally  with 
that  of  their  education  at  the  same  periods. 
The  most  excellent  monograph  of  Prof. 
Clarke,  recently  published,  has  treated  ably 
of  the  latter  regard. 

"  We  must  dissent,  however,  from  his  state- 
ment, as  far  too  inclusive,  that  '  the  female 
operative,  of  whatever  sort,  has,  as  a  rule, 
passed  through  the  first  critical  epoch  of 
woman's  life  :  she  has  got  fairly  by  it.' 

"Actual  investigation  in  this  direction 
shows  a  very  large  per  cent  of  employees  in 
various  factories  and  burdensome  employ- 
ments, occupying  the  whole  of  the  day,  where 


64  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

the  average  age  of  puberty  lias  not  been 
passed,  wlieu,  certainly,  the  menstrual  func- 
tion has  not  been  well  established.  Certain 
investigations  undertaken  within  the  past 
year  in  regard  to  the  effect  of  employments 
requiring  a  considerable  expenditure  of  nerve- 
force  for  at  least  some  period  of  the  processes, 
have  produced  some  interesting  and  curious 
results.  An  observation  of  females,  varying 
in  age  from  sixteen  to  forty,  engaged  in 
basket-making,  a  labor  requiring  wonderful 
rapidity  of  manipulation,  showed,  that  in 
half  a  dozen  new  operatives  placed  upon  the 
work  in  a  well-ventilated,  light,  and  cheerful 
room,  — 

*'  1.  Five  lost  in  weight  in  the  first  week 
appreciably,  the  remaining  one,  a  slower  per- 
son, apparently  not  at  all. 

"  2.  The  youngest  lost  the  larger  per  cent 
of  weight. 

"  3.  Two  —  one  sixteen,  and  another 
eighteen  —  experienced  disturbance  of  the 
menstrual  function  in  the  first  month  of 
employ,  though  previously  regular. 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  85 

"  4.  The  slow  person  began  to  lose  Aveight 
appreciabl}'  on  the  fourth  week,  when  her 
motions  had  quicliened. 

"  5.  The  decrease  in  weight  continued  with 
all  (though  there  was  no  diminution  of  appe- 
tite or  general  health  specialh^  noticeable) 
for  from  four  to  six  weeks,  when,  the  move- 
ments of  the  digits  having  become  more  me- 
chanical, it  ceased,  and  the  weight  remained 
essentially  unchanged  for  a  few  weeks,  vary- 
ing with  individuals,  from  one  to  three,  when 
in  four  of  the  six  it  increased  perceptibly, 
in  the  other  two  slightly.  The  operatives 
of  tliis  department  state  that  a  change  in  the 
shape  of  their  work,  requiring  for  a  time 
more  concentrated  thought,  will,  if  it  occur 
at  that  junctui-e,  effect  sometimes  a  disturb- 
ance of  the  catamenial  function.  In  all, 
familiarity  tcith  the  ivork  tends  to  remove  the 
difficulty.  From  these  and  the  other  attach- 
ing circumstances,  we  have  been  led  to  con- 
clude that  there  is  a  direct  effect  of  bodily 
Qxertion,  in  females,  upon  the  peculiar  func- 
tion of  the  sex ;  that  this  is  greatest  with  the 


86  THE  BUILD  TNG   OF  A  BRAIN. 

youngest ;  that  it  is  directly  proportioned  to 
the  degree  of  mental  activity  involved,  and 
is  to  be  considered  gravely  in  the  regulation 
of  mechanical  pursuits  employing  such  labor. 

"  Information  has  been  furnished  us  by  a 
lady  long  in  charge  of  the  sewing-room  of 
a  large  shoe-factorj'-  where  foot-power  was 
used  exclusively,  that,  in  general,  she  had 
arrived  at  the  same  conclusions. 

"  The  agent  of  one  of  our  largest  cotton- 
factories  has  investigated  the  same  subject, 
and  has  formed  the  same  conclusions  in  re- 
gard to  young  female  operatives.  A  full 
statement  of  his  careful  and  extended  obser- 
vations is  soon  to  appear. 

"  The  work  of  counting  rattan  strands, 
done  at  the  manufactory  of  that  material  at 
"Wakefield,  requiring  concentration  of  mind 
constantly,  is  an  exemplification  of  the  fore- 
going findings.  If  girls  of  tender  years  were 
placed  at  this  work,  which  keeps  one  con- 
stantly on  the  feet,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  disturbances  that  the  older  ones  em- 
ployed experience  would  grow  into  serious 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN.  87 

evils.  The  barbarous  practice  of  keeping 
shop-girls  all  day  upon  their  feet  cannot  be 
too  severely  reprehended.  That  a  joint 
interest  in  the  home  and  factory  conditions 
of  capital  and  labor  will  secure  to  both  the 
largest  pecuniary  return,  and  the  best  moral 
and  physical  influences,  and,  the  higher  the 
grade  of  intelligence  on  the  part  of  both,  the 
more  successful  the  results,  there  can  be 
Httle  doubt."— i^epori  for  1874,  pp.  46,  47. 

The  Bureau  conclude  the  part  of  the  re- 
port from  which  the  preceding  statements 
are  taken,  by  presenting  to  the  legislature 
of  Massachusetts  five  recommendations  for 
the  improvement  of  the  laboring  classes  of 
the  Commonwealth,  one  of  which  is  the 
following :  — 

"  A  care  that  certain  requirements  of  exist- 
ing law,  statute  and  physical,  should  receive 
full  recognition  in  the  employment  of  labor 
as  affecting  females  in  particular." — Report^ 
p.  48. 


88  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

Fiom  this  it  appears  that  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  of  Massachusetts,  after 
investigating  the  relation  of  sex  to  labor, 
have  reached  a  conclusion  similar  to  that 
which  the  Board  of  Health  of  the  same 
State  arrived  at,  after  investigating  the  rela- 
tion of  sex  to  school-work.  One  demands, 
in  the  interest  of  humanity,  that  the  laws 
should  recognize  sex  in  their  protection  of 
labor  ;  and  the  other  demands  that  our  school- 
system  should  recognize  it  in  the  organization 
of  our  schools. 

We  next  come  to  the  personal  observations 
of  parents  and  teachers. 

Last  February  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
gentleman,  personally  a  stranger  to  me,  but 
well  known  as  an  accomplished  scholar  and 
writer,  to  the  effect  that  the  case  of  his 
daughter,  who  died  less  than  a  year  previous, 
aged  eighteen,  would  furnish  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  evil  results  of  inappropri- 
ate methods  of  female  education ;  and  that 
he  would  be  willing  to  have  the  history  of 
]ier  case  pubhshed,  if  its  publication  would 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  89 

Tender  any  service  to  the  cause  of  sound 
education.  In  reply  to  a  request  for  the  his- 
tory which  he  had  so  kindly  and  unexpect- 
edly offered  to  prepare,  the  following  note 
Avas  received,  which  forms  an  appropriate  and 
sufficient  preface  to  the  sad  account  that 
follows  it :  — 

Makch  30, 1874. 

Dear  Sir,  —  The  enclosed  statement  is 
from  the  pen  of  my  wife.  If  it  can  serve 
the  right,  you  are  at  liberty  to  make  use  of 
it — in  whole  or  in  part,  in  the  language  in 
which  it  now  stands,  or  in  modified  or  en- 
tirely different  language  —  as  in  your  judg- 
ment may  seem  best. 

You,  of  course,  will  not  give  names,  cer- 
tainly not  in  full. 

Very  truly. 


It  is  proper  to  say,  that  except  a  few  slight 
verbal  alterations,  which  the  writer  herself 
would  probably  have  made  if  she  had  cor- 


no  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

rected  the  proofs  of  her  manuscript,  no 
changes  have  been  ventured  upon  in  the 
language  by  which  a  mother  presents  the 
instructive  lesson  of  her  daughter's  method 
of  education,  and  its  result. 

FEOM  A  MOTHEK. 

"  At  the  age  of  fifteen  Mary  was  a  remark- 
ably fine  and  healthy  girl :  she  seemed  to  be 
safely  over  the  critical  period,  and,  till  after 
that  time,  had  never  suffered  as  many  girls 
do  at  the  commencement  of  their  womanhood. 
Her  thinking  jDOwers  were  quick  and  vigor- 
ous ;  and  she  was  the  pride  of  her  teachers, 
and  joy  of  her  parents.  Unlimited  mental 
progress  was  laid  out  for  her ;  and  it  seemed 
that  there  were  to  be  no  bounds  to  her 
acquirements. 

"  She  had  then  finished  a  good  common 
school  education,  at  the  best  high  school,  and 
had  entered  an  institute  for  young  ladies  (a 
boarding-school)  of  the  highest  character. 
The  curriculum  of  study  there  was  compre- 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  91 

hensive ;  and  it  required  the  closest  applica- 
tion of  an  ambitious  scholar  to  succeed. 

"One  hour  was  allowed  for  walking  and 
recreation  during  the  day ;  and  half  of  that 
hour  could  be  spent,  if  the  pupil  desired  to 
do  so,  in  the  music-room.  As  the  months 
went  on,  I  began  to  notice  that  her  com- 
plexion, which  had  been  pure  rose-leaf,  be- 
came almost  transparent,  and  that  the  fresh 
blood  left  her  cheeks :  still  she  did  not  com- 
plain, nor  lose  flesh,  but  said  sometimes,  that, 
if  she  could  sleep  a  tveek,  she  would  enjoy 
it ;  and  that  it  almost  always  happened,  when 
she  was  unwell  she  had  the  most  to  do,  and 
the  longest  to  stand.  Her  progress  in  her 
studies  was  wonderful ;  and  it  seems  incredi- 
ble to  me  now  that  we  should  have  let  her 
devote  herself  so  entirely  to  them.  Her 
musical  talents  were  great,  and  they  were 
under  cultivation  also  :  when  she  was  seven- 
teen, she  was  the  first  soprano  singer  in  the 
choir  of  the  church  to  which  she  belonged. 

"  At  last  I  began  to  be  alarmed  at  the  re- 
markable flow  whenever  she  was  unwell ,  and 


92  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

at  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  periodical 
function.  I  felt  as  if  sometliing  should  be 
done,  and  consulted  our  family  physician  as 
to  what  could  be  given  her,  and  how  this 
increased  action  could  be  stopped  or  dimin- 
ished. 

"  He  prescribed  iron  as  a  tonic,  but  said 
that  we  should  do  nothing  more  ;  for  that 
'  every  woman  was  a  law  unto  herself,'  and, 
as  long  as  nothing  more  serious  occurred,  she 
was  to  be  let  alone.  This  from  a  man  Avho 
had  daughters  himself,  and  eminent  in  the 
profession !  Never  a  word  about  rest,  never 
a  caution  that  she  could  overAvork  herself,  and 
thus  bring  misery  for  the  remainder  of  her 
life.  She  left  school,  in  June  of  that  year, 
with  noble  honors  and  an  aching  frame,  and 
after  two  months'  vacation  and  rest,  which 
seemed  to  do  her  a  world  of  good,  began  in 
September  another  year  of  unremitting  hard 
study.  Loving  and  gratified  parents,  proud 
and  expectant  teachers,  looked  upon  her  as 
capable  of  accomplishing  all  that  had  ever 
been  done  by  faithful  students,  and  of  ad- 


THE  BUILDI2sG   OF  A   BRAIN.  93 

vancing   far  be3-oncl    all   who   were   in   the 
graduating  class  with  her. 

"Her  teachers  were  as  kind  as  any  could 
have  been.  I  think  the  fault  was  in  the 
system  that  requires  so  many  hours  of  study, 
no  matter  what  the  condition  of  the  pupil 
may  be. 

"  As  an  instance,  twenty-five  qiiestions  were 
given  her  to  be  answered.  She  was  seated 
at  a  table,  without  books,  from  ten,  a.m.,  till 
eight,  P.M.,  ceaselessly  thinking  and  writing ; 
and  the  twenty-five  questions  in  classical 
Hterature  were  faultlessly  answered,  —  and 
that,  too,  at  a  time  when,  had  I  known  what 
I  know  now,  she  should  have  been  resting  on 
her  bed. 

"  Her  father,  to  whom  the  paper  was  shown 
for  his  approval,  wrote  on  the  margin,  '  It 
seems  to  me  that  the  task  imposed  here  was 
a,  great  one  indeed;  but  it  has  been  performed 
with  good  success.'  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
mean  to  find  fault  with  her  teachers ;  for 
kinder,  more  interested  ones  no  pupil  ever 
had ;  and  the  delight  that  a  teacher  derives 


94  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

from  a  painstaking  and  appreciative  pupil 
cannot  be  understood  by  those  unused  to 
teacliing. 

"  Wliile  the  dear  child  was  meeting  our 
utmost  requirements  as  a  scholar,  the  foun- 
dations of  her  life  were  being  sapped  away. 

"In  May,  1872,  a  little  more  than  two 
weeks  before  the  June  commencement,  she 
was  taken  with  fearful  sickness  and  severe 
chills,  just  after  one  of  the  hemorrhages  that 
came  every  three  weeks  regularly.  Our 
doctor  was  called;  and  the  first  thing  she 
said  to  him  was,  '  Doctor,  I  must  not  be  sick 
now.  I  cannot  afford  the  time.  I  must  be 
well  for  commencement.'  For  four  days  she 
suffered  very  much,  but  quinine  and  all  sorts 
of  tonics  brought  her  up  ;  and  the  two  weeks 
that  should  have  been  taken  to  get  well  in 
were  spent  in  study,  study,  study.  All  the 
examinations  were  passed  successfully,  even 
brilliantly;  and  she  was  graduated  with  all 
the  honors  of  the  institution.  Oh,  how 
proud  we  were  of  her !  and  when  she  came 
home,  frail  and  weak  as  a  wilted  flower,  we 


TUE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  95 

said  that  she  should-  have  a  long  rest,  and 
every  comfort  that  we  could  give  her. 

"  All  summer  she  remained  in  the  High- 
lands of  the  Hudson;  yet,  when  autumn 
came,  she  was  not  as  well  as  we  thought  she 
ought  to  be,  though  very  much  improved  with 
regard  to  the  monthly  turns ;  they  recurring 
at  right  times  now. 

"  In  September  she  commenced  studying 
again :  her  French  and  music  were  continued, 
so  that  she  might  become  still  more  accom- 
plished in  those  branches ;  and  lectures  on 
rhetoric  and  moral  philosophy  were  attended 
also. 

"  The  habit  of  study  was  so  strong  upon 
her,  that  she  could  not  give  it  up.  Now  came 
swelling  of  the  joints  and  fingers,  and  the 
old  trouble,  all  of  which  she  would  have  kept 
to  herself  if  she  could  have  done  so ;  bv.  t  I 
was  so  anxious  about  her,  that  I  ascertained 
her  condition,  went  to  the  doctor  again, 
and  begged  him  to  tell  me  what  to  do  that 
would  stop  the  weakening  periodical  disturb- 
ance, as  I  was  persuaded  that  was  the  cause 


96  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

of  her  trouble.  He  said  she  had  inflammatory 
rheumatism,  and  prescribed  soda.  But  I  was 
not  to  do  any  tiling  for  the  other  matter; 
and,  against  my  own  convictions,  I  let  things 
take  their  course.  Oh  !  if  he  had  said,  '  Take 
her  home,  and  stop  her  studying.'  Armed 
with  such  authority,  I  could  have  done  it ; 
and  how  do  we  know  but  she  might  have 
been  with  us  now,  if  I  had  done  so  ? 

"  But  she  worked  on  till  the  25th  of  Decem- 
ber. Then  she  came  home,  and  said  decided- 
ly she  would  study  no  more  till  she  was  ivell. 

"  We  were  rejoiced  at  her  decision ;  for, 
although  we  were  anxious  that  her  education 
should  be  completed  and  thorough,  we  had 
felt  for  a  long  time  that  her  health  was  becom- 
ing impaired.  Still  we  were  sure  she  had  a 
good  constitution,  and  thought  that  would 
carry  her  through.  She  did  not  grow  thin, 
but  stout  and  j:)a?e  ;  and  such  a  transparent  pal- 
lor, that,  now  I  think  of  it,  I  wonder  all  who 
looked  at  her  did  not  see  that  her  blood  was 
turning  to  water.  Her  sweet  and  lovely  soul 
was  so  uncomplaining,  and  her  smile  always 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  97 

SO  bright,  that  we  never  for  a  moment  thought 
she  could  fade  and  die. 

"She  brightened  up  somewhat  for  the  next 
month,  but  still  did  not  '  get  well.'  About 
the  last  of  January  her  limbs  swelled  so 
much,  that,  in  haste,  I  rushed  to  the  doctor. 
Then  he  said  her  kidneys  were  congested, 
and  that  Bright's  fatal  disease  was  her  mal- 
ady. All  that  despairing  love  could  do  was 
done  now.  In  five  short  weeks  we  laid  her 
in  Greenwood.  Whatever  was  the  form  of 
the  disease  from  which  she  suffered,  I  am 
convinced  that  what  she  did  have  was 
brought  on  by  incessant  study  when  she 
should  have  rested ;  and  that  it  was  fixe'd  at 
the  time  that  she  got  the  severe  chills,  —  in 
May,  1871. 

"  She  was  by  no  means  a  frail  girl  when  she 
entered  the  institute.  She  was  tall,  finely 
formed,  with  a  full,  broad  chest,  and  musical 
organs  of  great  compass.  Her  bust  was  not 
flat,  neither  was  it  as  full  as  it  might  have 
been.  Her  features  were  not  too  large.  She 
had  brown  eyes,  brown  hair,   a  very  sweet 

7 


^8  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

and  pleasing  face.  With  every  indication  at 
first  of  strength  and  good  constitution,  she 
fell  at  last  a  victim  to  want  of  sense  in 
parents  and  teachers,  and  (shall  I  say  ?)  phy- 
sician too." 


The  following  observations  are  extracted 
from  "The  Boston  Evening  Transcript"  of 
Dec.  15,  1873.  The  initials,  "A.  E.  J.," 
over  which  they  appeared,  it  is,  perhaps, 
needless  to  add,  are  those  of  one  whose  in- 
telligence, accomplishments,  and  experience 
as  a  teacher  of  girls,  give  exceptional  value 
to  her  statements.  She  presented  the  result 
of  her  experience  in  "  The  Transcript "  un- 
der the  title  of 

THE  EDUCATION   OF  "WOMEN".* 

"  The  keen  interest  which  is  felt  by  a  large 
class  of  intelligent  women  in  New  England, 

*  Being  a  sti-anger  to  A.  E.  J.,  I  hare  ventured 
to  extract  these  observations  from  the  Transcript  with- 
out her  knowledge.  They  confirm  the  teacliings  of  physi- 
ology and  the  conclusions  of  medical  experience. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  99 

in  the  discussion  of  the  higher  education  of 
women,  is  vastly  greater  than  has  found  any 
expression  in  print.  Their  mental  condition 
is  that  of  inquiry,  often  of  dissent  from  what 
has  been  said,,  but  not  yet  of  confirmed  opin- 
ion. Some  facts  they  know ;  tliey  have  some 
strong  feehngs  and  wishes,  but  not  light  of 
experience  sufficiently  strong  to  enable  them 
to  assert  that  the  true  methods  of  higher  edu- 
cation for  women  have  yet  been  attained. 
Co-education — identical,  or  other — seems  to 
them  as  yet  only  an  experiment.  They  know 
that  those  men  who  are  most  interested  in, 
and  have  most  to  do  with,  co-education,  feel 
sure  that  this  is  the  true  method ;  that  many 
earnest  women,  including  those  who  have 
themselves  been  so  educated,  believe  this  to 
be  the  God-ordained  way  of  training  for  both 
men  and  women.  But  it  seems  to  them,  that 
a  subject  which  involves  the  future  of  their 
sex  cannot  be  decided  by  experiments,  con- 
ducted under  peculiar  circumstances,  extend- 
ing over  scarcely  thirty  years  of  time.  The 
decisions  arrived  at  by  those  persons  who 


100  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

favor  co-edncation  (identical  ?)  do  not  seem 
to  them  to  have  been  made  with  due  consid- 
eration of  all  the  data  which  must  have  place 
in  any  fundamental  discussion  of  this  subject, 
fraught  with  such  tremendous  consequences 
for  the  future  of  woman  and  of  the  race. 

"  The  question  whether  the  present  meth- 
ods of  education  are  adapted  to  the  physical 
constitution  of  woman  is  a  matter  of  very 
earnest  and  anxious  consideration  in  the 
minds  of  many  thoughtful  teachers.  And, 
by  education,  I  mean  both  the  home  and 
school  education.  I  have  taught  for  more 
than  thirty  years  :  more  than  half  this  work 
has  been  in  mixed  schools,  from  the  primary 
to  the  high  school ;  and  from  year  to  year  my 
conviction  has  grown  stronger  and  stronger, 
that  girls  cannot  endure  the  continuous  study 
that  boys  thrive  under  ;  that,  as  Mr.  Higgin- 
son  said  at  the  discussion  in  the  Social 
Science  meeting  last  spring,  the  stimulus 
under  which  the  ghi  exerts  all  her  powers 
is  not  enough  to  rouse  the  calmer,  more 
phlegmatic  nature  of  the  boy. 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  101 

"  Altlioiigli  I  cannot  quote  his  exact  words, 
I  tliink  I  have  given  the  substance  of  doc- 
trine. How  many  times,  when  I  have  heard 
this  presented  as  an  argument  for  co-educa- 
tion, I  have  shrunk  from  the  contemplation 
of  the  effect  upon  the  health  of  the  girls  I 
And  it  is,  perhaps,  the  word  '  stimulus ' 
which  holds  in  itself,  as  in  a  nutshell,  the 
real  danger. 

"  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  nervous  anx- 
iety to  reach  a  certain  point  in  a  given  time, 
the  worry  over  class-records,  the  anxious 
desire  to  meet  the  expectation  of  friends,  the 
wearing  excitement  of  public  days,  the  eager 
haste  which  parents  and  friends  feel,  in  com- 
mon with  the  girls  themselves,  to  have  the 
time  of  school-work  over,  have  made  a  large 
proportion  of  the  evils  of  education  for 
young  women.  I  have  been  jDainfully  dis- 
appointed in  the  breaking-down  of  young 
women  after  leaving  school,  who  seemed  to 
be  well  at  graduation,  but  who  proved  un- 
able to  bear  tlie  strain  of  after-work.  I 
have  thought  I  perceived  the  same  nervous 


102  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

strain  in  many  of  tlie  written  and  spoken 
words  of  women  on  this  as  well  as  othei 
subjects. 

"  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  intensity  of 
feeling  has  been  so  great,  that  it  showed 
itself  in  a  nervous,  anxious  tone  of  voice,  so 
that  I  felt  myself,  by  sympathy,  the  same 
friction. 

"  Whether  I  have  given  some  of  the  true 
reasons  for  the  more  frequent  nervous  ex- 
haustion of  girls  than  boys,  in  the  course  of 
education,  the  fact  remains,  as  far  as  my  own 
experience  goes.  I  believe  that  a  portion  of 
this  nervous  weakness  in  girls  is  OAving  to 
inheritance,  something,  also,  to  lack  of  proper 
care  of  children  on  the  part  of  the  mothers. 
I  have  not  known  many  girls  whose  mothers 
had  given  them  any  careful  instruction  as  to 
the  care  of  their  physical  being.  Some  part 
of  this  nervous  exhaustion  is  due,  doubtless, 
to  the  bracing  nature  of  our  climate,  which 
men  feel  as  well  as  women,  but  to  which  the 
more  delicate  organization  of  the  woman  is 
the  first  to  yield.     Something  may  be  attrib- 


TEE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  103 

uted  to  bad  methods  of  dress  and  living  ;  but, 
after  every  allowance  is  made  for  all  the  evil 
resulting  from  these  sources,  I  believe  some- 
thing of  the  trouble  is  to  be  charged  to  wrong 
methods  of  education  in  schools.  They 
aggravate  the  evil  tendencies  already  in- 
duced. 

"lam  heartily  glad  to  learn  that  one  college 
for  women  is  recognizing  the  necessity  of 
adapting  the  methods  of  woman's  education 
to  the  needs  of  her  physical  organization. 
Whether  the  adaptation  is  what  it  should  be, 
is  at  present  of  less  consequence  than  the 
recognition  of  the  need.  That  is  a  step  in 
the  right  direction. 

"  There  are  earnest,  thoughtful  women, 
teaching,  who  are  trying  to  mitigate  the  evils 
of  the  present  system  of  education,  and  to 
avert  the  bad  effects  upon  girls,  of  a  system 
fitted  rather  for  boys,  and  into  which  girls 
have  come  as  an  after-thought.  Each  one 
of  these  women  has  grown  into  this  work, 
has  of  necessity  accepted  a  place  in  a  system 
which  she  did  not  shape,  and  which  she  has 


104  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

neither  been  able  nor  known  bow  to  change. 
She  feels  that  education  has  been  a  great 
blessing  to  her.  She  wishes  she  had  more, 
and  desires  her  younger  sisters  to  have  better 
privileges  of  study.  But  some  of  these 
teachers  have  looked  with  dismay  upon  some 
of  the  results  of  their  work.  They  have  felt 
the  strain  of  nerves,  the  exhaustion  of  body, 
which  have  come  to  some  of  their  most 
promising  pupils ;  and  they  have  been  anx- 
iously inquiring  how  the  development  of 
mind  may  be  secured  without  injury  to  the 
body ;  what  can  be  done  to  adjust  our  sys- 
tem of  instruction  to  the  needs  of  girls.  .  .  . 
No  person  can  consider  wisely,  or  shape 
rightly,  the  education  of  young  women,  who 
does  not  keep  constantly  in  mind,  as  he 
marks  out  a  course  of  study,  the  fact  that 
the  larger  number  of  women  are  to  be  moth- 
ers, and,  of  the  remainder,  many  are  to  be 
teachers  ;  and  that  he  is  to  aim  at  the  devel- 
ment  of  a  nobler  womanhood. 

"  Again  and  again,  as  I  have  listened  to 
some  glowing  description  of  the  educational 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  105 

disabilities  under  which  women  labor,  of  their 
inferior  position  resulting  from  unjust  dis- 
criminations made  by  law  and  public  opin- 
ion, my  heart  and  judgment  have  said  Amen  ; 
but  when  some  one  of  these  speakers,  being 
a  woman,  has  so  felt  these  burdens  as  to  be 
tempted  to  exclaim,  'Why  was  I  born  a 
woman,  to  endure  all  this  ? '  in  common 
with  many  other  women,  I  have  said,  '  I 
thank  God  that  I  was  born  a  woman.'  The 
joys,  the  delights,  nay,  even  the  sacrifices 
and  sufferings  of  women,  do  in  some  degree 
compensate  for  these  disadvantages,  —  for 
even  the  impossibility  of  going  to  Harvard  or 
any  other  New-England  college. 

"  I  am  willing  to  give  up  a  college  educa- 
tion with  men,  or  even  like  theirs  as  to 
method ;  indeed,  I  wish  for  a  different  one. 

"  And  yet  I  will  not  admit  that  woman  may 
not  attain  as  noble  and  symmetrical  an  intel- 
lectual development  as  man.  I  believe  the 
perfect  physical  and  intellectual  development 
of  the  woman  will  bring  to  the  civilization 
of  to-daj-  a  beneficent  element  not  yet  felt  as 


106  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

it  should  be.  To  woman  is  committed  the 
shaping  of  the  beginning  of  all  education, 
the  future  of  the  world.  If  every  woman 
who  shall  be  a  mother  or  teacher  is  so 
trained,  beyond  intellectual  culture  like  that 
of  men's,  she  is  specially  fitted  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  a  mother,  both  physical  and  in- 
tellectual, that  whether  she  be  the  queen  of 
a  nation,  or  of  one  household,  or  never  a 
queen  at  all,  she  shall  '  hold  her  uncrowned 
womanhood  to  be  the  royal  thing,  that  is  the 
education  for  woman.' " 

D.  H.  Cochran,  LL.D.,  the  distinguished 
head  of  the  Brooklyn  Collegiate  and  Poly- 
technic Institute,  was  asked  by  the  writer  to 
what  conclusions  he  had  been  led  upon  the 
relation  of  sex  to  education,  by  his  long  ex- 
perience as  a  teacher.  In  reply,  he  sent  the 
following  letter,  with  permission  to  publish 
it,  as  a  contribution  from  him  to  the  investi- 
gation of  the  question  under  considera' 
tion :  — 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  107 

"  My  convictions  of  tlic  necessity  of 
shaping  our  educational  systems  so  as  to 
meet  the  pecuhar  demands  of  sex  are  of  long 
standing  and  very  positive.  I  have  experi- 
enced none  of  the  '  moral '  or  '  intellectual ' 
difficulties  so  called  :  on  the  contrary,  I  be- 
lieve the  direction  and  government  in  mixed 
schools  is  easier  and  more  pleasant  than  in 
schools  of  either  sex  alone  ;  and  I  have  gen- 
erally found  the  female  quicker  in  apprehen- 
sion, and  more  ready  in  the  class-room,  than 
is  the  male.  But  the  physical  conditions  of 
the  two  sexes  are  so  unlike,  that  I  do  not 
think  it  possible  that  a  system  of  co-educa- 
tion, beyond  the  ages  of  puberty,  can  be 
devised,  that  shall  have  due  regard  to  the 
highest  interests  of  both.  I  see  that  I  have 
already  run  away  from  the  question  you 
addressed  to  me ;  but  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  these  physical  differences,  when 
once  recognized,  in  their  bearings  upon  our 
systems  of  education,  are  so  persistently 
obtruding  themselves  upon  the  mind  of  a 
teacher,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  shut  them 


108  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

out ;  and,  unfortunately,  they  often  unfit  him 
for  a  patient  and  candid  consideration  of  the 
truth  when  biassed  by  preconceived  theories 
of  education. 

"  In  reply  to  j'our  letter,  I  would  say  that  I 
had  fifteen  years'  experience  in  mixed  schools, 
where  the  pupils  were  classed  and  educated 
without  distinction  of  sex.  The  lasb  ten 
years  of  that  period  was  in  the  New-York 
State  Normal  School.  In  that  school  the 
youngest  females  were  sixteen  years  of  age, 
and  the  youngest  males  were  eighteen.  The 
course  of  study,  certainly,  was  not  severe, 
commencing  with  the  qualifications  requisite 
for  the  lowest  grade  of  certificate  for  teach- 
ing common  schools  in  the  State  of  New 
York :  it  continued  during  two  years,  and 
was  supposed  to  furnish  its  graduates  with 
the  qualification  for  the  highest  or  State  cer- 
tificate. The  larger  proportion  of  the  pupils 
were  females ;  and  during  the  war  it  rose  to 
above  eighty  per  cent  of  the  whole  number 
in  attendance. 

"  About  thirty  per  cent  of  those  who  entered 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  109 

the  school  completed  the  course  of  study ;  and 
about  seven  per  cent  of  the  graduates  failed 
to"  report  themselves  as  teaching  after  leaving 
the  school.  A  very  large  proportion  of  these 
failures  were  on  the  part  of  the  females  ;  and 
it  was  accounted  for  very  complacently,  on 
the  supposition  that  they  had  advanced  from 
the  charge  of  schools  to  the  charge  of 
families,  and  that  their  services  were  not  lost 
to  the  State.  But  the  number  of  students 
who  were  evidently  unfitted  for  teaching  by 
impaired  health  induced  my  predecessor  in 
charge  of  the  Normal  School,  Dr.  Woolwalk, 
the  veteran  educator,  now  the  efficient  Sec- 
retary of  the  Board  of  Regents,  to  make  an 
eloquent  appeal  to  the  Commissioners  in  his 
Annual  Report  of  1855,  to  send  only  such  stu- 
dents to  the  school  as  possessed  a  sound 
physical  organization,  equal  to  the  work  of 
preparation  required  by  the  Normal  School, 
and  to  the  discharge  of  the  teacher's  duties 
afterwards. 

"  Notwithstanding  his  earnest  efforts,  the 
evils  of  failing   health   on   the  part  of  qui 


110  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

female  pupils  continued,  and  the  consequenc 
incapacit}^  to  discliarge  the  duties  for  which 
the  State  was  educating  them.  But  the  facts 
were  hardly  suspected  until  suggested  acci- 
dentally in  1866 ;  and  then  the  reports  of  Dr. 
Bailey,  who  had  been  consulted  by  a  large 
number  of  the  female  pupils,  and  of  a  lady 
in  the  faculty  of  the  school,  revealed  the 
astounding  fact,  that,  among  about  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  female  pupils  then  in  the 
school,  there  were  over  twenty  cases  in  which 
the  periodical  functions  peculiar  to  the  sex 
had  ceased  for  over  two  months,  and  that 
there  Avas  a  much  larger  number  of  similar 
cases  less  serious.  Even  then  the  causes 
were  attributed  to  stairs,  bad  ventilation,  and 
recklessness  of  health,  without  suspicion  that 
the  evils  Avere  inherent  in  a  system  which 
imposed  upon  the  female  continuous  labor, 
and  in  amount  equal  to  that  of  the  male,  who 
was  in  many  and  perhaps  in  the  majority  of 
cases  her  intellectual  inferior,  but  who  was 
the  niheritor  of  continuously  rugged  health. 
"  The  logic  of  facts  to  which  our  eyes  were 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  Ill 

SO  slowly,  and,  I  fear,  unwillingly  opened, 
finally  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  more 
elastic  course,  optional  to  the  females.  But, 
while  this  gave  relief  to  a  part  of  the  pupils, 
it  augmented  the  evils  to  others  ;  for  the  more 
ambitious  regarded  the  exemption  from  ad- 
vanced mathematics  as  a  reflection  upon  their 
intellectual  ability,  and  persisted  in  taking 
the  severer  course  in  spite  of  the  advice  of 
their  teachers. 

"  This  spirit  was  indicated  in  the  remark 
of  one  of  these  pupils  to  a  lady-teacher  who 
was  advising  her  to  drop  the  mathematics  of 
the  senior  year,  on  account  of  failing  health. 
She  said,  '  I  will  do  it,  if  it  kills  me.'  We 
can  hardly  wonder  that  the  teacher  im- 
patiently repKed,  '  If  it  killed  you,  perhaps 
it  Vv'ould  not  so  much  matter;  but  are  you 
quite  willing  to  impose  upon  your  friends  the 
burden  of  your  lifelong  helplessness  ? ' 

"  The  only  recourse  was  to  reduce  the 
whole  course  of  study ,-and  its  consequent  util- 
ity to  our  male  pupils,  who,  Avithout  more  in- 
tellectual ability,  but  with  greater  capacity  for 


112  THE  BUILDING   OF  A    BRAIN. 

uninterrupted  labor,  were  able  easily  to  ac* 
complisb  what  we  could  not  safety  require  of 
both  sexes  together.  Do  not  understand  me 
as  concluding  against  the  higher  education 
of  females. 

"  I  have  observed  no  facts  to  be  arrayed 
against  its  advocates.  I  have  been  compelled 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  sexes  cannot  be 
educated  together  with  advantage  to  either, 
and  that  the  physical  disadvantages  under 
which  she  labors  render  it  necessary  that  a 
system  be  devised  so  elastic,  with  so  much 
optional  work,  that  the  female  "may  rest,  at 
least  comparatively,  as  occasion  requires, 
without  her  falling  behmd,  or  becoming  a 
burden  to  the  class  or  the  teacher.  I  urge 
the  separate  higher  education  of  females 
solely  upon  physical  grounds. 

"  My  experience  has  forced  me  to  this.  I 
have  a  record  of  my  former  pupils  who  stood 
high  in  their  classes,  who  did  their  work  with 
seeming  ease,  but  who  have  been  unable  to 
teach,  and  now  confess  that  they  date  the 
beginning  of  their  present  sufferings  to  tlie 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  113 

continuous  labor  of  school.  I  have  in  my 
mind,  as  I  write,  the  case  of  a  young  lady 
from  Tioga  County,  now  residing  in  this 
city,  who  stood  foremost  in  her  class,  and 
without  apparent  effort,  but  who  has  never 
been  in  sound  health  since  her  graduation ; 
and  she  attributes  her  present  condition  to 
the  insensible  exhaustion  of  her  class-work. 
Yet  she  would  have  been  the  very  last  to 
confess  overwork  while  a  pupil ;  and  I  do  not 
think  that  either  she  or  her  teachers  then 
suspected  it. 

"  But  I  must  close  this  hastily-written  let- 
ter. I  would  that  I  had  time  to  put  it  in 
better  shape.  If  its  substance  renders  it  of 
service  to  the  cause  of  right  education,  I  can 
only  say  it  is  more  than  I  can  expect  from 
its  form. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  trust  the  present  dis- 
cussion will  be  continued  until  the  eyes  of 
teachers  are  opened  to  the  evils  they  are 
unconsciously  inflicting  upon  those  in  their 
charge,  and  for  whom  they  are  so  devotedly 
laboring.  Very  truly  yours, 

8  "D.  H.  Cochran." 


114  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

Last  February  an  article  appeared  in  "The 
Brooklyn  Union,"  under  the  title  of  "  Hap- 
Hazard  Papers,  No.  7,"  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  are  made :  — 

"  Not  forty  years  ago  I  was  appointed  prin-' 
cipal  of  an  institution  for  girls  not  a  thou- 
sand miles  from  Brooklyn.  A  charter  had 
been  obtained  from  the  regents  of  the  uni- 
versity, an  appropriate  building  erected,  and 
abundant  chemical  and  physical  apparatus 
supplied.  The  design  of  the  institution  was 
to  furnish  a  higher  grade  of  culture  for  girls 
than  had  been  given  in  the  city  or  country. 
The  plan  was  popular ;  for  on  opening  its 
doors  more  than  three  hundred  pupils  were 
enrolled.  I  saw  that  an  opportunity  was  fur- 
nished of  doing  something  for  female  educa- 
tion which  had  not  been  attempted,  and  felt 
the  responsibility  of  my  position.  I  had 
before  me  such  educators  as  Emma  Willard, 
Catharine  Beecher,  and  others,  who  were 
pioneers  in  the  cause  of  education,  but  felt 
that  there  was  higher  ground  to  be  occupied. 


TEE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  115 

I  queried,  Why  are  not  young  women  enti- 
tled to  a  culture  similar  to  that  given  to 
young  men  in  our  colleges  ?  I  will  see  what 
can  be  done.  A  liberal  course  of  study  was 
planned,  a  proper  classification  of  pupils 
made,  and  the  working  machinery  set  in  mo- 
tion. I  saw  that  time  was  required  before 
any  thing  like  flattering  results  could  be  ob- 
tained. My  assistants  were  inexperienced ; 
my  pupils,  young  and  undisciplined.  But  we 
went  patiently  to  work,  and,  after  months  of 
thorough  drilling,  were  able  to  form  a  senior 
department.  The  question.  Can  young  wo- 
men master  the  abstract  sciences  ?  pressed 
itself  upon  my  attention.  Classes  in  mathe- 
matics were  formed,  and  patiently  drilled. 
Essentially  the  same  course  as  that  at  the 
military  academy  at  West  Point  was,  in  two 
or  three  years,  adopted,  —  a  thorough  course 
of  pure  and  applied  mathematics,  embracing 
as  its  crowning  dome  the  differential  and  in- 
tegral calculus.  This  was  regarded  by  some 
as  an  unjustifiable  assumption,  which  would 
surely  end  in  defeat.     But,  not  to  be  daunted 


116  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

or  turned  from  our  work,  professors  of  math- 
ematics from  the  colleges  were  invited  to  con- 
duct the  examinations  of  the  classes.  They 
came  year  after  year,  and  testified  as  follows. 
Prof.  Joseph  Henry  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute, Washington,  in  1842  said,  '  The 
committee  were  surprised  and  satisfied  with 
the  evidences  of  proficiency  which  had  been 
exhibited.  They  were  surprised  and  delighted 
with  the  rapidity  and  precision  with  which 
the  exercises  were  conducted ;  and  although 
they  have  frequently  attended  examinations 
of  males,  yet  they  are  free  to  say  that  they 
have  never  been  present  at  one  which  sur- 
passed this  in  the  evidence  given  on  the  part 
of  pupils  of  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
subjects.' 

"  Prof.  Albert  B.  Dod  of  Princeton  College 
reported  in  1843,  '  With  scarcely  an  excep- 
tion, the  problems  and  theorems  —  which  were 
all  assigned  by  lot,  and  many  of  them  were 
of  the  most  difficult  kind  —  were  solved  with 
the  utmost  facility,  and  accompanied  with 
the  most  precise  account  of  the  several  steps 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  117 

and  processes  employed,  and  of  the  princi- 
ples upon  whicli  they  depended. 

'? '  As  a  further  test  of  their  proficiency,  the 
principal  had  x^reviouslj^  proposed  to  the  class 
questions  selected  from  works  with  which 
they  had  no  acquaintance,  and  which  they 
were  required  to  solve  in  writing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  principal  and  of  the  assistant 
teacher  of  mathematics.  These  problems, 
about  thirty  in  number,  selected  from  the 
Cambridge  Problems  and  other  works,  many 
of  them  difficult  of  solution,  and  wrought 
out  under  circumstances  which  put  to  the 
completest  proof  the  unassisted  powers  of  the 
pupil,  afforded,  in  connection  with  the  oral 
examination,  a  thorough  test  of  scholarship.' 

"  Prof.  Charles  Davies,  former  professor  of 
mathematics  at  West  Point  JNIilitary  Acad- 
emy, in  1848  said,  '  The  examination  was 
conducted  without  any  aid  drawn  from  the 
text-books ;  and  hence  each  pupil  was  called 
on  to  answer  from  her  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  could  not  avail  herself  of  words 
committed  to  memory,  or  of  impressions  but 


118  THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN. 

faintly  and  imperfectly  made  upon  tlie  mind. 
The  examination  was  continued  for  more  than 
five  hours ;  and  searching  and  severe  tests 
were  applied.  The  answers,  the  demonstra- 
tions, and  the  discussion  of  abstract  and  diffi- 
cult principles,  all  evince  a  high  proficiency 
in  mathematical  science.' 

"  E.  C.  Ross,  professor  of  mathematics  in 
the  Free  Academy,  New  York,  reported  in 
1849,  '  The  examination  in  algebra  was 
thorough,  embracing  the  whole  range  of  sub- 
jects contained  in  the  text-book.  The  most 
difficult  theorems  in  geometry  were  demon- 
strated with  a  clearness  of  reasoning,  and 
accuracy  of  expression,  that  would  have  been 
credible  to  the  pupils  of  our  highest  institu- 
tions of  learning.' 

"  Charles  W.  Hackley,  professor  of  mathe- 
matics in  Columbia  College,  wrote  in  1850, 
'  The  committee  had  expected  an  intellectual 
entertainment  of  no  ordinary  kind ;  but  their 
anticipations  were  far  surpassed  by  the  actual 
and  vivid  reality.  Not  satisfied  with  their 
performance  on  the  blackboard,  the  neatness 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  119 

and  accuracy  of  tlieir  solutions,  tlie  committee 
questioned  them  minutely  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain- the  depth  of  their  mathematical  knowl- 
edge, compelling  them  to  pass  an  ordeal 
which  none  could  accomplish  without  fully 
understanding  the  subject.  There  could  be 
no  deception.  Their  manner  of  answering 
the  most  difficult  and  intricate  questions  gave 
ample  evidence  that  they  were  mistresses  of 
the  science.' 

"  Elias  Loomis,  professor  of  mathematics  in 
Yi^le  College,  in  his  report  for  1855  said, 
'  W  '^  doubt  whether  there  is  another  female 
semiL'ary  in  the  United  Slates,  where  six 
young  ladies  can  be  found  who  can  furnish 
more  el  egant  solutions  of  the  test-questions 
than  ha>-e  been  furnished  by  six  members  of 
the  gradu  ating  class.  We  believe  that  the 
mathemativ-al  studies  are  pursued  at  the  in- 
stitute with  a  thoroughness  and  success  not 
surpassed  b}  any  similar  institution  in  the 
country.  We  know,  that,  as  regards  very  many 
of  them,  the  institute  is  in  this  respect  in- 
comparably tl  eir  superior.' 


120  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

"In  order  to  stimulate  and  intensify  the  in- 
terest of  my  pupils  in  this  direction,  a  gold 
medal  was  offered  as  an  object  worthy  of 
achievement.  In  other  departments,  as  belles- 
lettres,  logic,  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical 
sciences,  the  same  success  was  won.  The 
success  was  brilliant.  After  many  years  of 
labor  in  that  field,  I  left  it  to  establish  a  simi- 
lar institution  in  another  city.  I  have  recited 
what  may  appear  to  be  too  much  of  my  own 
personal  history  ;  but  I  have  done  so  for  the 
reason  which  will  be  presently  given.  •  I  h^.d 
reached  the  solution  of  the  question  in  the 
affirmative  as  to  the  competency  of  woman  to 
master  the  abstract  sciences,  and  learned  that 
girls,  as  a  class,  are  quicker  and  better  stu- 
dents, up  to  a  certain  age,  than  boys.  I  had 
previously  taught  the  latter,  and  could  judge. 
The  brain-power  of  girls  is  more  xacile,  and 
ready  in  expedients.  A  boy's  br-ain,  on  the 
contrary,  is  slower  in  development,  and  less 
responsive.  This  difference  of  ability,  I 
think,  continues  up  to  a  certain  period,  say 
twenty-five  years,  when  the  laore  sluggish 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  121 

brain  of  man  is  aroused,  and  ever  after  is  ca- 
pable of  greater  achievements  in  intellectual 
power.  This,  I  think,  is  borne  out  by  facts 
coming  under  the  observation  of  every  ex- 
perienced teacher  of  the  two  sexes.  ...  I 
do  not  know  how  much  harm  I  did  to  my 
own  pupils ;  but  I  do  know  that  such  was 
sometimes  the  intensity  of  interest  at  the 
mathematical  examinations,  that  it  was  occa- 
sionally necessary  to  allay  the  excitement  of 
the  throbbing  brain  by  putting  bandages  of 
ice  upon  the  temples  of  the  competitors. 

"  Here  let  me  say  that  my  conviction  and 
repentance  of  sin  in  this  respect  took  place 
years  ago ;  and  I  have  learned  to  adopt  a 
different  regimen  in  the  treatment  of  my 
pupils.  I  have  abolished  medals,  public  ex- 
aminations, and  all  unnecessary  excitement  to 
the  mental  discipline  of  girls.  .  .  . 

"  As  an  educator  of  more  than  forty  years' 
experience  in  the  practical  business  of  teach- 
ing, in  which  time  some  ten  thousand  pupils 
have  come  under  my  care,  I  would  protest 
against  all  visionary  and  extravagant  methods 


122  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

in  female  education ;  all  large  communities 
of  girls  in  college  establisliments,  for  tlie 
government  of  which  quasi  military  codes  of 
law  are  necessary,  by  which  much  if  not  all 
that  is  social  and  domestic  in  education  is  lost 
to  the  poor  girls. 

"As  we  look  upon  the  increasing  physical 
deterioration  of  our  American  girls,  and  re- 
flect that  they  are  to  become  the  mothers  of 
an  unborn  generation,  on  which  will  surely 
fall  an  inheritance  of  defective  physical  or- 
ganization, and  consequent  mental  infirmities, 
it  is  time  to  sound  a  note  of  alarm,  and  look 
at  the  causes  which  are  undermining  the 
Republic,  and  search  for  the  remedies  that 
should  be  applied.  .  .  . 

"  In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  we  are  a 
people  given  to  experiment.  There  is  notliing 
in  our  politics,  economies,  or  rehgion,  that 
must  not  be  put  to  the  experimentum  crucis. 
This  is  true  of  our  schools  for  girls.  .  .  .  The 
cry  to  our  older  colleges  and  time-honored 
universities  is.  Open  your  doors,  that  the 
fairer  part  of  creation  may  enter,  and  join  in 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  123 

the  mental  tilt  and  tournament.  God  save 
the  American  people  from  such  a  misfor- 
tune!" 

It  appeared,  on- inquiry,  that  the  author  of 
the  article  from  which  the  preceding  extracts 
are  taken,  was  Dr.  Charles  E.  West,  princi- 
pal of  the  Brooklyn  Heights  School  for  Young 
Ladies.  Though  personally  a  stranger  to  him, 
I  ventured  to  address  to  him  a  letter  similar 
in  tenor  to  that  which  was  sent  to  Mr.  Coch- 
ran.    The  following  is  his  reply :  — 

Beookltn  Heights  Seminary, 
June  6,  1874. 

Deah  Sm,  —  You  ask  my  oi3inion  in  re- 
gard to  the  physical  evils  of  our  present  modes 
of  our  female  education. 

From  an  experience  of  more  than  forty 
years  in  the  practical  business  of  teaching, 
most  of  which  time  has  been  spent  in  the 
education  of  girls,  I  have  had  abundant  op- 
portunities of  observing  the  bearing  of  our 
American  modes  of  school-discipline    upon 


124  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

the  healtli  and  well-being  of  our  young 
women.  Within  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
I  have  witnessed  an  evident  deterioration  of 
physical  vigor  in  them,  which,  I  think,  has, 
in  part,  resulted  from  theu'  luxurious  modes 
of  living,  —  as  highly-seasoned  food,  unseason- 
able hours  of  sleep,  inadequate  clothing,  and 
insufficient  exercise,  —  but  mainly,  and  in  con- 
nection with  these  deteriorating  causes,  from 
the  excessive  mental  strain  put  upon  them  in 
the  process  of  their  scholastic  education. 

There  has  been  developed  a  greater  in- 
tensity of  brain-power  than  has  been  consist- 
ent with  the  welfare  of  the  vital  forces.  This 
more  rapid  maturity  has  been  followed  by  a 
correspondingly  earlier  decay  of  physical 
power.  This,  I  think,  is  generally  true  of 
girls  living  in  our  cities  and  large  towns. 
The  extreme  delicacy  and  fragile  beauty  of 
the  American  girls  is  a  subject  of  general 
remark  among  Europeans.*  They  are  beau- 
tiful ;  but  theirs  is  not  the  beauty  which 
distils  in  the  blood  of  the  English  or  German 
maiden.     It  is  wanting  in  strength,  an  essen- 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  125 

tial  element  in  the  highest  forms  of  beauty 
as  it  is  seen  delineated  in  the  Grecian  statues 
of- Juno  and  Minerva.     One  of  the  leading 

o 

causes  of  this  deterioration,  as  I  have  said, 
is  the  intemperate  discipline  of  the  maiden's 
school-life. 

And  here  I  need  not  stop  to  argue 
whether  there  is  sex  in  mind  as  well  as  in 
body,  —  a  truth,  I  think,  which  admits  of  no 
debate ;  and,  if  a  truth,  then  all  our  theories 
of  education  which  are  based  upon  the  iden- 
tity of  the  sexes  must  be  fallacious. 

Here  is  the  root  of  the  evil;  and,  the 
sooner  it  is  ascertained  and  extirpated,  the 
sooner  will  a  true  theory  of  education  foi 
girls  be  adopted,  and  a  noble  success 
achieved. 

It  is  absurd  to  educate  a  girl  as  you  would 
a  boy.  You  might  as  well  undertake  to  train 
the  elephant  and  the  gazelle  for  a  competitive 
foot-race.  All  the  dexterity  and  tact  of 
Bamum  could  neither  give  agility  to  the  one, 
nor  a  ponderous  gait  to  the  other. 

The  great  folly  of  the  age  is  to  treat  girls 


126  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

and  bo3^s,  in  their  education,  as  tliougli  they 
were  alike.  The  girl  thinks  herself  abused, 
if  she  cannot  attend  a  boys'  school ;  or,  if  not 
attend  a  boys'  school,  if  she  cannot  have  just 
such  a  curriculum  of  studies  as  the  boys 
have.  Hence  our  pretentious  female  colleges 
and  universities ;  and  hence,  too,  the  prema- 
ture wrecks  which  leave  these  academic  halls 
to  sadden  parental  hearts. 

I  am  using  strong  language  ;  but  facts 
justify  the  language.  It  is  a  sad  truth,  that 
the  guardians  to  whom  are  intrusted  the  pres- 
ent and  future  interests  of  the  human  race  are 
false  to  their  trusts.  That  they  sin  through 
ignorance  is  the  most  charitable  view  that 
can  be  taken  of  their  conduct.  It  is  patent 
to  every  observing  educator,  that  young 
women  cannot  be  put  into  our  State  normal 
schools  and  academies  with  young  men,  to 
pursue  their  studies  together,  with  any  degree 
of  safety  to  their  health. 

Another  point  in  the  discussion  of  our 
subject,  I  wish  simply  to  allude  to.  It  is 
this,  that,  as  there  are  no  two  persons  identi- 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  127 

cally  the  same,  so  no  system  of  education,  aa 
Bucli,  can  be  applied  indiscriminately,  and 
with  success,  to  any  nmnber  of  pupils.  Each 
requires  a  discipline  adapted  to  liis  or  her 
nature.  The  skill  of  the  teacher  lies  in  his 
ability  to  understand  the  temperament  and 
peculiarities  of  each,  and  then,  in  his  tact, 
to  apply  the  regimen  that  shall  contribute  to 
the  best  development.  Here  lies  the  great 
art  of  teaching.  The  opposite  is  the  system 
of  cramming  (a  vulgar  term,  but  aptly  ex- 
pressing a  vulgar  si/steTri),  which  is  but  too 
universal  in  our  day.  This  indiscriminate 
treatment  of  the  two  sexes  in  the  class-room 
is  most  damaging  to  the  female.  It  is  time 
that  this  matter  should  be  understood.  The 
evil  has  run  long  enough.  It  ought  to  be 
discussed  in  every  convention  of  teachers  in 
the  land.  In  the  view  I  have  taken  of  mixc(il 
schools  of  the  higher  grade,  and  of  those 
institutions  that  are  devoted  exclusively  to 
female  education,  —  which  go  under  the  name 
of  colleges  and  universities,  the  professed 
object  of  which  is  to  equal,  if  not  rival,  the 


128  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

culture  that  is  given  at  Harvard  or  Yale,  — I 
would  not  be  understood  as  underrating  tlie 
education  of  women.  On  the  other  liand, 
I  would  advocate  for  her  the  highest  possible 
culture  ;  so  that  she  might  grace  any  station 
in  life  to  which  she  may  be  called.  But  it 
should  be  a  culture  consistent  with  and  in 
harmony  with  her  nature  and  office  in  life ; 
and  the  mode  of  culture  should  not  be  in- 
consistent with  her  health  and  well-being. 
I  remain  truly  yours, 

Chas.  E.  West. 

Mr.  Eben  S.  Stearns,  princi^Dal  of  the  Rob- 
inson Female  Academy,  Exeter,  N.H.,  who 
has  been  known  for  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century  as  an  able,  intelligent,  and  success- 
ful teacher  of  girls,  and  whose  testimony  is 
of  corresponding  value,  writes, — 

"  My  opportunities  for  observation  have 
not  been  those  of  a  scientific  physician,  and 
I  cannot  speak  with  that  assurance  which 
would  be  required  of  him  ;  yet,  as  the  result 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  129 

of  many  years'  experience  in  the  education 
of  females,  I  cannot  resist  the  conviction,  that, 
in  the  methods  of  a  girl's  education,  careful 
attention  should  be  paid  to  the  peculiarities 
of  her  organization.  As  an  educator,  I  do 
not  recognize  the  least  inferiority  in  the 
female  sex  to  males  of  the  same  age  and 
advantages. 

"  In  patience,  power  of  endurance,  courage, 
mental  activity,  and  success  in  the  acquisi- 
tion and  application  of  knowledge,  few,  if 
any,  of  the  other  sex,  can  be  found  to  sur- 
pass many  of  them. 

"  Let  them,  if  they  wish,  seek  the  bar,  the 
forum,  the  pulpit,  or  the  healing  art ;  let 
them  have  place  as  professors,  as  school-com- 
mittees, the  right  of  suf&'age,  and  all  else 
they  desire ;  and  I  will  wish  them  success. 

"  But,  after  all,  I  cannot  resist  the  convic- 
tion, that  most  of  these  ends  must  be  reached, 
if  at  all,  by  a  different  way  from  that  over 
which  the  other  sex  may  be  safely  carried ; 
that  the  whole  course  of  discipline  and  train- 
ing must  have  a  special  adaptation  to  their 


130  TEE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

peculiar  organization  and  circumstances  ;  and 
that  any  method  of  education  which  ignores 
•Bex  will  generally  fail;  while  a  life-Lurden 
of  ill-health  Avill  be  entailed  upon  multitudes, 
if  not  upon  all  females,  who  are  subject  to  it. 
Every  experienced  teacher  of  females  knows 
that  there  are  times  when  the  demands  of 
the  class-room  must  not  be  too  earnestly  in 
sisted  upon,  and  when  nervousness  and  ii-ri- 
tation  must  be  dealt  with  very  leniently.  In 
a  mixed  school  or  college,  I  do  not  see  how 
proper  allowance  can  be  made,  without,  on 
the  one  hand,  lowering  the  standard  for  boys, 
or  compelling  girls  to  submit  to  an  iron  rou- 
tine, which  would  sooner  or  later  crush  the 
most  of  them. 

"What  I  would  insist  upon  is  simply  that 
woman's  education  should  be  adapted  to  her 
peculiarities  of  body  and  mind,  and  should 
meet  her  own  wants. 

"  In  determining  what  this  education  shall 
be,  I  would  have  woman  speak  for  herself, 
if  she  will.  Let  her  study  herself,  know 
herself  thoroughly,    and   then   say  what  is 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  131 

best  for  her,  and  what  Avill  make  her  that 
she  desires,  and  is  entitled  to  be,  —  the  equal 
of  man." 

Imitating,  in  a  small  way,  the  method  pur- 
sued by  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  its  recent  investigation  of  school 
hygiene,  I  sent  two  or  three  questions,  sim- 
ilar to  those  prepared  by  the  Board,  or  the 
same,  and  relating  to  the  subject  before  us, 
to  three  or  four  eminent  physiologists  and 
gynaecologists,  with  a  request  for  a  statement 
of  the  conclusions  to  which  their  observation 
and  study  had  led  them  in  this  matter.  Their 
replies  form  the  third  class  of  observations 
previously  referred  to. 

Dr.  William  A.  Hammond,  professor  of 
diseases  of  the  mind  and  nervous  system,  in 
the  University  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and 
president  of  the  New-York  Neurological 
Society,  whose  researches  in  physiology,  and 
whose  study  and  treatment  of  the  nervous 
system,  have  given  him  such  a  just  and  wide- 
spread reputation,  says,  — 


132  TEE^VILBING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

"  It  falls  to  my  lot  to  see  a  good  many 
young  ladies  whose  nervous  systems  are  ex- 
hausted, and  thus  rendered  irritable,  by  in- 
tense application  to  studies  for  which  their 
minds  are  not  suited.  Only  a  few  days  ago\ 
a  mother  brought  her  daughter  to  me  to  be 
treated  for  spinal  irritation,  with  all  its  ac- 
companying nervous  derangements ;  and  I 
find,  upon  inquiry,  that  this  girl  of  sixteen, 
who  could  not  spell  correctly,  was  compelled 
to  study  civil  engineering  and  spherical 
trigonometry,  —  subjects  not  as  likely  to  be 
of  use  to  her  as  a  knowledge  of  the  language 
of  Timbuctoo.  In  my  opinion,  schools  such 
as  the  one  this  girl  went  to  do  more  to  un- 
sex  women  than  aU  the  anomalies  who  prate 
about  the  right  to  vote,  and  to  wear  trousers. 
Now  for  your  questions,  — 

"  '  1st,  Is  one  sex  more  Hable  to  suffer  in 
health  from  attendance  in  school  than  the 
other  ?  ' 

"  Undoubtedly,  every  physician  in  a  large 
city,  who  has  had  experience  with  school  boys 
and  girls,  knows  that  the  latter  suffer  more 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A   BRAIN.  133 

frccf^ently  and  severely.  In  country  schools, 
where  the  attendance  is  only  for  a  short  time 
of  the  year,  and  for  a  few  hours  each  day, 
and  where  the  pupils  have  to  walk  two  or 
more  miles  to  get  to  school,  the  difference, 
though  existing,  would  probably  be  not  so 
distinctly  marked. 

" '  2d,  Does  the  advent  of  puberty  increase 
the  liability,  and,  if  so,  more  in  one  sex  than 
the  other  ? ' 

"  Puberty  being  a  much  more  complex 
process  in  girls  than  in  boys,  the  former  are 
more  liable  to  disease  at  this  time ;  and  this 
liability  is  increased  by  whatever  tends  still 
more  to  exhaust  the  nervous  system,  such  as 
mental  application  or  anxiety. 

"  I  have  repeatedly  seen  cases  in  which  the 
flow  of  the  menses  had  been  suddenly  stopped 
by  the  anxiety  induced  by  the  necessity  of 
learning  a  school-lesson. 

"  '  3d,  In  the  education  of  gii'ls,  should  any 
attention  be  paid  to  the  catamenial  week  ? ' 

"  The  utmost  possible  care.  People  who 
are  very  careful  to  avoid  draughts  of  cold  air 


134  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

when  tliey  are  overheated,  pay  no  attention 
whatever  to  their  daughters  at  a  time  when 
the  system  is  peculiarly  liable  to  disease.  I 
have  known  of  cases  in  which  girls  men- 
struating, and  wishing  to  go  to  balls,  have 
been  instructed  by  their  mothers  to  stop  the 
function  by  putting  their  feet  in  ice-cold 
water;  and  in  two  of  these  cases  epileptic 
convulsions  were  the  result.  A  large  num- 
ber of  the  cases  of  epilepsy  in  women  which 
come  under  my  care  are  directly  the  result 
of  menstrual  disturbances,  due  to  inattention 
and  imprudence. 

"  '  4,  Is  the  nervous  system  any  more  liable 
to  suffer  from  excessive  study  at  puberty,  or 
during  the  catamenial  week,  than  other  parts 
of  the  organism  ?  ' 

"  Yes.  My  experience  is  decidedly  to  this 
conclusion,  and  the  results  are  hysteria, 
spinal  irritation,  chorea,  epilepsy,  catalepsy, 
neuralgia,  wry-neck  (torticollis')^  cerebal  con- 
gestion, cerebral  ansemia,  nervous  exhaus- 
tion, and,  occasionally,  acute  inflammation  of 
the  membranes  of  the  brain. 

"  Wtt.tjam  a.  Hammond.' 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  135 

Dr.  D.  M.  Da  Costa  of  Pliiladelphia,  whose 
professional  acquirements,  opportunities  for 
observation,  and  sound  judgment,  are  recog- 
nized tliroughout  the  country,  as  well  as  in 
the  city  of  his  residence,  answers  the  ques- 
tions originally  proposed  by  the  State  Board 
of  Health  of  Massachusetts,  as  follows :  — 

"  My  dear  Sir,  —  The  questions  you  pro- 
pound I  will  answer  as  far  as  in  a  brief  way 
it  is  possible  to  do. 

"  As  regards  one  sex  being  more  liable  to 
suffer  in  health  from  attendance  on  school 
than  the  other,  my  experience  gives  but  one 
reply.  With  any  thing  like  equal  work,  the 
female  sex  suffers  much  more ;  and  I  think 
the  liability  to  deterioration  of  health,  and 
to  many  disorders  of  the  nervous  system,  far 
greater  in  girls  at  the  age  of  puberty  than  in 
boys.  I  believe  that  excitement  of  any  kind, 
and  premature  dissipation,  may  come  in  for 
a  share  of  the  injured  physical  condition  that 
is  attributed  to  excessive  study ;  but,  that 
this  is  most  injurious,  I  have  had  opportuni- 
ties of  witnessing. 


136  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

"  As  regards  the  injurious  effects  of  over- 
work during  tlie  catamenial  week,  or  in  how 
far  regard  should  be  paid  to  this  period  in  the 
education  of  girls,  I  have  not  studied  the 
matter  closely  enough  to  express,  from  pos- 
itive observation,  a  decided  opinion;  but 
common-sense,  and  the  teachings  of  physi- 
ology, point  in  the  direction  of  lessening,  as 
far  as  practicable,  work  at  a  time  when  the 
whole  system  is  depressed ;  and,  as  regards 
the  effect  of  mental  strain,  it  may  not  be  un- 
interesting to  you  to  know  that  I  saw,  some 
years  since,  a  violent  case  of  delirium,  lasting 
several  days,  produced  in  an  ambitious  school- 
girl busily  prej)aring  for  examination.  I  am 
sure  good  will  come  from  the  discussion  of 
tliis  subject ;  for  there  is  certainly  no  ques- 
tion more  important  than  how  modes  of  cul- 
ture and  mental  occupation,  and  new  fields 
of  activity  and  usefulness,  may  be  afforded 
women,  without  sacrificing  their  strength, 
and  their  full  powers  to  become  wives  and 
mothers.  Sincerely  yours, 

D.  M.  Da  Costa.' 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  137 

Some  time  last  winter  a  teacher  wrote  to 
Dr.  T.  Addis  Emmet  of  New  York  for  his 
opinion  upon  the  comparative  abilit}'  of  boys 
and  giiis  to  follow  the  same  methods  of  edu- 
( ition,  or  the  relation  of  sex  to  education. 
Unsolicited,  Dr.  Emmet  sent  me  his  reply, 
and  enhanced  the  favor  of  sending  it  by  per- 
mitting its  publication.  His  long  and  large 
observation  of  the  diseases  of  women,  for 
the  treatment  of  which  he  has  acquired  such 
a  deserved  reputation  both  in  this  country 
and  Europe,  give  exceptional  value  and 
weight  to  his  conclusions  upon  the  matter  we 
are  discussing.     He  says,  — 

"  I  have  long  been  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  the  system  is  a  wrong  one  in  attempt- 
ing to  educate  both  male  and  female  on  the 
same  plan,  as  their  organizations  are  so  differ- 
ent. The  nervous  system  of  a  young  girl, 
on  reaching  puberty,  is  as  susceptible  of  ex- 
ternal influences,  as  the  barometer,  of  atmos- 
pheric changes.  The  health  and  happiness 
of  her  whole  after-life  will  turn  upon  a  proper 


138  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

management  of  this  period,  and  iiiitil  her  sys- 
tem has  accommodated  itself  to  the  change. 
A  boy,  at  this  age,  shoukl  be  held  well  np  to 
the  mark  to  keep  him  out  of  mischief ;  and 
sufficient  out-door  exercise  will  act  as  a 
safety-valve  to  keep  him  in  good  health. 
As  society  is  now  constituted,  the  female  is 
the  sufferer,  by  an  inheritance  of  a  weakened 
organization. 

"  The  sexes  are  thrown  too  much  together 
in  early  life  ;  and  frequently  puberty  is  forced 
before  the  body  has  been  sufficiently  devel- 
oped. To  early  and  artificial  excitement,  to 
a  taste  for  dress,  and  a  neglect  of  nearly 
every  habit  of  life,  may  we  attribute  much 
of  the  bad  health  of  our  young  women.  With 
an  impaired  organization,  which  has  become 
hereditary  in  our  day,  the  system  of  educa- 
tion for  young  women  which  is  so  generally 
pursued  is  a  most  vicious  one.  We  find  it 
pushed  at  a  time  of  life  when  rest  and  quiet 
should  be  the  rule,  when  all  the  life-forces 
are  needed  to  accommodate  the  system  to  the 
shock,  as  it  were,  of  so  radical   a  change. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  139 

Without  the  female  is  unusually  robust  at 
puberty,  it  is  impossible  to  develop  the  brain, 
by  close  application  to  study,  except  it  be  at 
the  expense  of  an  arrest  of  development  in 
the  uterus  and  ovaries. 

'•  I  do  not  advocate  a  life  of  indolence  at 
this  time,  but  deprecate  the  forcing  system. 
For  some  little  time  before  puberty  is  ex- 
pected, and  for  a  year,  at  least,  after  it  has 
been  properly  established,  there  should  be  a 
relaxation  from  study.  This  is  particularly 
true  in  regard  to  the  effect  of  music  with 
many  girls,  where  the  nervous  element  is 
•prominently  developed.  At  the  time  of  men- 
struation, absolute  rest  should  be  enforced, 
both  of  body  and  mind,  until  the  proper  time 
of  return,  and  quantity  of  flow,  has  become  a 
fixed  habit. 

"  In  the  interval,  attention  should  be  paid 
to  a  proper  regulation  of  every  habit  of  hfe, 
chiefly  as  regards  the  condition  of  the  bowels, 
and  the  proper  amount  of  exercise  in  the 
open  air.  If  tliis  course  has  been  properly 
followed,  it  would  be  far  better  to  go  into 


140  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

society  a  few  years  later,  and  devote  the  same 
time  of  life  to  hard  study,  which  the  young 
men  pass  at  college. 

"As  a  rule,  our  girls  enter  society  too 
young,  and  many  before  they  have  reached 
their  growth,  or  full  physical  development. 
Few  are  able  to  nurse  their  children,  the 
needed  stimulus  for  the  uterus  to  regain  its 
natural  size :  as  a  consequence,  some  local 
disease  becomes  established,  which  is  likely 
to  continue  until  menstruation  ceases  at  the 
change  of  life. 

"  This  condition  may  not  cause  sterility, 
but  is  likely  to  lessen  the  number  of  chil- 
dren, and  to  transmit  an  enfeebled  constitu- 
tion. It  is  not  Nature's  law,  that  such  should 
be  the  case ;  but  society  has  perverted  Nature, 
and  we  have  to  deal  with  the  consequences." 

Dr.  Fordyce  Barker,  the  eminent  profes- 
sor of  obstetrics  and  diseases  of  women  in 
the  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College,  New 
York,  permits  the  statement  that  he  has 
been  led   by  his  personal   observation   and 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  141 

experience  to  the  same  conclusions  as  to 
the  relation  of  the  epoch  of  female  develop- 
ment to  education.  While  preparing  these 
pages  for  the  press,  the  writer  received  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Lionel  S.  Beale  of  London,  — 
a  physician  whose  physiological  researches 
have  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  modern 
investigators,  and  made  him  an  authority 
wherever  ph3^siological  science  is  taught  or 
valued,  —  in  which  the  following  paragraph 
occurs.  The  extract  appears  in  this  place 
with  his  permission,  and  closes,  not  inappro- 
priately, this  section  of  a  brief  contribution, 
probably  the  last  which  the  author  will  make, 
to  the  discussion  of  the  relation  of  sex  to 
education,  —  a  matter  of  vital  importance 
ahke  to  the  individual,  the  nation,  and  the 
race. 

"  Knowing,"  says  Dr.  Beale,  "  as  we  all  do, 
how  very  different  are  the  organs  of  boys 
and  girls,  and  what  different  nutritive  and 
other  changes  are  proceeding  in  the  two 
sexes  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty, 


142  THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN. 

we  cannot  but  be  surprised  that  the  same 
training  should  be  advocated  for  both.  But 
physiology  and  common-sense  are  utterly 
disregarded  by  many  of  the  'leaders  of 
thought.'  However,  we  may  feel  sure  it 
will  all  come  right  in  the  end ;  for  '■Naturam 
expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  reciwret '  still 
holds  :  but  how  many  poor  creatures  may  be 
experimented  upon  and  ruined  in  health 
before  leaders  in  thought  shall  be  convinced, 
one  dreads  to  think." 


A  GLIMPSE  AT  ENGLISH  BRAIN- 
BUILDING. 


PART  m. 

A  GLIMPSE  AT  ENGLISH   BHAIN-BTJILDrNG. 

"Of  all  the  intellectual  errors  of  which  men  have  been 
gmlty,  perhaps  none  is  more  false,  and  has  been  more 
mischievous  in  its  consequences,  than  the  theologico- 
metaphysical  doctiine  which  inculcated  contempt  of  the 
body  as  the  temple  of  Satan,  the  prison-house  of  the 
spirit,  from  which  the  highest  aspiration  of  miad  was 
to  get  free.  It  is  a  foolish  and  fruitless  labor  to  attempt 
to  divorce,  or  put  asunder,  mind  and  body,  which  Nature 
has  joined  together  in  essential  unity  ;  and  the  right  cul- 
ture of  the  body  is  not  less  a  duty  than  — is,  indeed, 
essential  to  — the  right  culture  of  the  mind."  — Henkt 
Maudsley,  M.D. 

"  Man  is  the  nobler  gi-owth  oxir  realms  supply; 
And  sovla  are  ripened  in  our  northern  sky." 

Mrs.  Bakbauld. 

From  a  careful  observer  who  lias  been  in 
England,  and  who  found  time  in  the  midst 
of  pressing  avocations  to  visit  some  of  the 
English  schools,  and  to  make  a  few  notes  of 
his  observations  upon  them,  I  have  obtained 
the  following  glimpse   of    English    sohool- 

145 


146  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

methods  for  girls,  or  of  English  female  brain- 
building,  which  may  be  new  to  some  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

While  he  was  in  England,  he  made  vari- 
ous inquiries  and  observations  touching  the 
methods  of  English  schools  for  girls  who 
belong  to  families  in  good  circumstances; 
and,  in  general,  he  tried  to  see  wherein  Eng- 
lish ideas  of  bringing  up  girls  are  different 
from  our  ideas.  The  interest  of  this  inquiry 
lies  in  the  indisputable  fact,  that  the  educated 
English  girl  of  twenty  is,  on  the  average,  a 
finer  creature  physically  than  her  American 
contemporary :  she  is  larger-boned,  more 
muscular,  fuller-blooded,  and,  in  general, 
more  robust,  and  better  able  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  womanhood.  I  can  best  give  the 
results  of  his  observations  under  several  dis- 
tinct heads : — 

Diet.  —  The  children's  food  in  a  good 
English  home  or  school  is,  on  the  whole,  sim- 
pler, more  digestible,  and  more  nourishing, 
than  in  most  good  American  homes  and 
schools ;  but  the  main  difference  is  not  in 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  147 

the  food,  but  in  tlie  general  sentiment  with 
regard  to  eating.  To  eat  regularly  at  least 
three  hearty  meals  every  day  is  a  serious 
duty  as  well  as  pleasure  in  an  English  family 
or  school ;  and  there  is  generally  some  fomlh 
eating  of  a  lighter  description.  That  a 
daughter  should  go  to  school,  or  begin  her 
daily  work,  without  having  eaten  a  stout 
breakfast,  would  be  a  monstrous  horror  in  an 
Enghsh  family :  with  us  it  is  an  occurrence 
too  common  to  excite  a  remark  either  at 
home  or  at  school.  In  a  large  day-school  for 
girls  in  London,  in  which  the  session  was 
only  four  hours  and  a  half  long,  it  was  found 
that  every  girl  was  required  to  eat  luncheon  in 
the  middle  of  the  morning.  Girls  who  did 
not  bring  luncheon  from  home  were  required 
to  buy  it  at  the  school.  The  same  thing  was 
observed  at  a  school  for  twelve  hundred  girls 
in  Edinburgh.  Is  there  a  day-school  in  the 
United  States  in  which  a  similar  regulation  is 
enforced?  An  extreme  care  to  supply  at 
regular  times  an  abundance  of  simple  and 
wholesome  food  characterizes  English  bring- 


148  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

ing-up  of  children  in  tlie  upper  classes, 
whether  at  home  or  at  school.  It  is  too 
often  grievously  neglected  with  us. 

Fkesh  Aie.  —  English  girls  are  more  in 
the  open  air  than  American  girls  ;  and  when 
they  are  indoors  they  hve  in  rooms  warmed 
almost  exclusively  by  open  fires.  The  cli- 
mate of  England  befriends  them  here.  Winter 
and  summer,  there  is  a  part  of  almost  every 
day  in  England  when  it  is  pleasant,  or  at 
least  not  unpleasant,  to  be  in  the  open  air; 
and,  during  their  winter  weather,  there  are 
but  few  days  when  open  fires  fail  to  keep  the 
rooms  of  a  well-built  house  moderately  warm. 
The  English  do  not  wish  to  be  as  warm  in 
their  houses  as  we  do.  The  general  English 
behef  in  the  virtue  of  fresh  air  and  out-of- 
door  exercise  affects  very  much  the  manage- 
ment of  schools,  whether  for  gMs  or  boys. 
At  the  English  public  schools  for  boys,  more 
attention  seems  sometimes  to  be  given  to 
physical  than  to  mental  training.  What 
would  American  teachers  think  of  having  a 
recess  of  ten   minutes   out  of   every  hour, 


THE  BUILDING   OF  A  BRAIN.  149 

during  which  every  child  should  bo  obliged 
to  go  into  the  open  air,  and  the  windows  of 
every  room  in  the  school-building  should  be 
thrown  wide  open !  Such  was  found  to  be  the 
rule  at  an  excellent  Scotch  academy  which 
receives  both  boys  and  girls.  The  girls  at 
that  academy  were  so  constantly  going  into 
the  open  air,  that  they  wore  their  hats  even 
when  in  the  school-rooms.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  taste  for  exercise  in  the  open  air, 
and  of  a  love  of  out-of-door  occupations  and 
sports,  is  slow  in  this  country.  The  extremes 
of  our  climate  are  against  us.  We  build  our 
houses  to  keep  out  heat  and  cold,  not  to  en- 
able us  to  enjoy  such  temperate  weather  as 
we  really  have.  The  newness  of  the  country 
is  also  against  us.  The  mere  absence  of 
well-made  roads  is  a  serious  difficulty.  For 
sitting  in  the  open  air,  and  for  walking,  rid- 
ing, driving,  boating,  yachting,  cariiage- 
journeys,  and  indeed  every  sort  of  open-air 
exercise  and  amusement  suitable  for  the  sex, 
the  English  girl  of  the  upper  classes  has  a 
much  better  chance  than  the  American  girl, 


150  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

and  she  lias  by  inheritance  and  training  a 
stronger  taste  and  greater  capacity  for  such 
healthful  occupations  than  the  American. 
No  reform  in  our  methods  of  bringing  up  girls 
will  be  effectual,  which  does  not  include  much 
greater  attention  than  we  now  give  to  secur- 
ing for  them  fresh  air  indoors,  at  school  and 
at  home,  and  moderate  exercise  out  of  doors 
and  open-air  amusements. 

Sleep.  —  The  usual  bed-time  at  English 
boarding-schools  for  girls  is  nine  o'clock, 
even  for  girls  seventeen  and  eighteen  yearti 
old.  Moreover,  at  many  of  the  best  of  these 
schools,  the  girls  are  not  allowed  to  study 
after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  in  order 
that  the  mind  may  be  at  rest  during  the  hour 
before  bedtime.  Even  the  masters  and  mis- 
tresses of  day-schools  are  expected  to  take 
vigilant  care  that  their  pupils  do  not  over- 
work themselves  at  home.  A  schedule  show- 
ing the  precise  time  [e.g.,  from  three  to  half- 
past  four,  or  from  seven  to  eight]  to  be  spent 
each  iay  in  the  preparation  of  home-lessons  is, 
at  many  schools,  given  to  each  pupd ;  and  her 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  151 

parents  are  informed,  that,  if  the  pupil  cannot 
complete  her  lessons  within  the  time  men- 
tioned, she  should  leave  them  undone.  In 
preparing  these  schedules,  the  master  or  mis- 
tress has  to  inquire  systematically  into  the 
habits  and  hours  of  the  famUies  fi-om  which 
their  pupils  come,  and  to  adapt  the  schedule 
of  each  pupil  to  her  home-circumstances.  So 
far  as  I  know,  such  care  of  the  j)upils'  home- 
work as  this  is  very  rare  in  American  schools, 
whether  for  boys  or  girls. 

Teanqtjillity  of  Life.  —  An  English 
girl  of  good  family  grows  up,  until  she  is 
eighteen  years  old,  in  an  atmosphere  of  pro- 
found quiet,  hke  a  plant  which  the  gardener 
has  sheltered  from  the  wind,  that  it  may  de- 
velop on  all  sides  to  perfection.  She  does 
not  associate  much  with  her  parents  and  their 
fiiends ;  sees  very  httle  of  young  men  bej^ond 
those  of  her  own  family ;  does  not  go  to  par- 
ties, or  public  entertainments  of  any  sort; 
.and  knows  little,  and  cares  less,  about  what  is 
going  on  in  the  world.  In  all  these  respects, 
her  life  is  phj^sically  much  more  wholesome 


152  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN. 

tlian  that  of  her  American  sister.  Moreover, 
she  is  never  subjected  to  the  influence  of 
strenuous  competition  at  school,  —  that  most 
disastrous  influence  for  girls  and  young 
women.  She  is  never  a  performer  at  school 
*  exhibitions,'  or  public  examinations  of  any- 
kind.  Her  tasks  at  school,  or  with  her  gov- 
erness, are  decidedly  hghter  than  those  of 
boys  or  young  men  of  the  same  age ;  and 
ishe  never  has  occasion  to  compare  her  attain- 
ments with  those  of  the  other  sex. 

The  Infltjence  of  the  Desire  of  Mar- 
riage.—  A  fortunate  marriage  is  what  an 
English  girl  deskes  for  herself,  and  what  her 
parents  desire  for  her.  To  this  end  it  is  all-im- 
portant, in  England,  that  a  young  woman,  of 
whatever  class  in  society,  should  be  healthy 
and  vigorous.  When  American  young  men 
feel  about  this  matter  as  English  young  men 
feel,  and  have  felt  for  many  generations,  there 
will  be  a  great  improvement  in  the  physique  of 
American  women,  because  parents  will  have^ 
strong  motives,  perhaps  unconscious  ones,  for 
using  all  means  to  that  good  end ;  and  it 


THE  BUILDING  OF  A  BRAIN.  153 

is  an  end  which  can  be  accomplished  by  the 
persevering  use  of  the  right  means.  Thought- 
less marriages  are  more  natural  in  a  new 
society  than  in  an  old.  As  American  society 
gets  more  highly  organized,  such  marriages 
will  be  less  and  less  common. 

English  education  and  English  society  are 
not  without  their  faults ;  but  this  glimpse  at 
their  educational  methods  gives  us  a  hint  of 
possible  improvements  in  ours.  The  English 
educate  the  body  better  than  we  do,  and  so 
far  build  better  brains.  There  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  equal  or  surpass  them  in 
this  respect  as  well  as  in  others.  A  republic 
should  build  the  brains  of  its  children  with  as 
much  care  and  excellence  as  a  monarchy  per- 
forms the  same  task,  if  it  would  exist  as  long. 


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